Action Alliance candidate Olayinka Braimoh has relived his experience at the hands of police officers while trying to reach his polling station on Saturday morning.
According to him, he was arrested on the Kabba-Obajana highway and detained in a police cell along with his personal and security aides throughout the election period.
Braimoh, who was answering questions from journalists in his hometown of Kabba, said police found in one of his vehicles a leftover ballot sample that was used to educate voters on how to be fingerprinted during voting.
“The next thing was that they said we had voting ballots. That was ridiculous because it is clearly stated here that this is a sample ballot,” she said while showing the ballot on camera.
Braimoh said he had no information about the elections and could not comment on its development because the police had completely excluded him from the exercise.
“Today I was detained almost all day. I was coming from Lokoja early today and we got stuck in traffic at Kabba junction after Obajana.
“There were several hundred trucks on the road, so we couldn’t maneuver to get out of that place quickly. In the end we were able to get out of there. We arrived at the first checkpoint near Okeboko, they searched our vehicle and found nothing. We didn’t have any cash.
“After that, they let us go and the next thing we saw was this bus passed us and went ahead to wait at the next checkpoint. EFCC operatives got off the bus with some police officers and the next thing was to search again and they saw remains of our flyers in the trunk of the trucks.
“The next thing was that they said we had voting ballots. That was ridiculous because it clearly says here that this is a sample ballot. They took us to the area command and locked us all up. Both the police and all the staff pushed us into the cell and locked us inside the cell.
“They collected our phones and kept us incommunicado for most of the day. So I don’t have any information, as I speak to you, about today’s election until I get the answer because my phones were collected and my batteries were dead. Therefore, I will need to receive an update before I can make any comments regarding the election.”
His supporters were worried in the early hours of Saturday when they could not find him or reach him by phone during the voting period.
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It was feared that he had been kidnapped until his assistant told Newslodge that he was arrested by security agents.
The Police Public Relations Officer for Kogi StateWilliam Aya did not return calls for comment on the development.
