Kogi guber: How I was arrested, prevented from voting—AA’s governorship candidate reveals
Action Alliance candidate Olayinka Braimoh, who is running for governor of Kogi State, has explained his arrest and detention on Saturday, which he claimed resulted in his disenfranchisement.
Braimoh and seven of his security detail were arrested in Kabba by security officials after campaign materials were allegedly discovered in his car.
His words, “I have been kept in custody for almost the whole day today. I was coming in from Lokoja early hours of today and we got stuck in the traffic at Kabba junction after Obajana.
“There were several hundreds of trucks on the road, so we could not manoeuvre our way to come out of that place fast. Eventually, we were able to come out of there. So we got to the first checkpoint around Okeboko, our vehicle was searched, nothing was found. We were not carrying cash.
“After that, we were released to go and the next thing we saw was this bus overtook us and went ahead to wait at the next checkpoint. EFCC operatives came out from the bus with some policemen and the next thing was they searched again and they saw the leftover of our flyers in the trunk of the trucks.
“The next thing was they said we were carrying ballot papers. That was ridiculous because it is clearly stated here that this is a ballot paper sample. They took us to the area command and we were all locked up. Both the police and every personnel, they pushed us inside the cell and locked us up inside the cell.
“They collected our phones and kept us incommunicado for most of today. so I don’t have any information, as I speak to you, regarding the election today until I get the feedback because my phones were collected and my batteries went flat. So, I will need to get an update before I can make any comment about the election.”
One of the candidates for Governor of Kogi State, Olayinka Braimoh of the Action Alliance party, was detained for over 8 hours by security operatives around Kabba in Kogi West.
This explains why some other candidates were initially reluctant to vote. #KogiDecides pic.twitter.com/PNMZOvhrWT
— Oluwole (@Onemola) November 11, 2023