- Two members of PDP in Ogun, 2 INEC officials also
Operatives of the Kaduna State Police Command, in collaboration with the Department of State Services (DSS) and other security agencies, have arrested a suspected vote buyer and recovered N25.9 million cash hours before the commencement of polls in by-elections that held earlier today.
Spokesperson of the Kaduna Police Command, DSP Mansir Hassan, confirmed the arrest in a statement issued in Kaduna on Saturday.
He said operatives apprehended the suspect, identified as Shehu Aliyu-Patangi, at about 3:30 am at a hotel along Turunku Road in Kaduna metropolis.
The recovered cash is strongly suspected to have been earmarked for inducing voters and compromising the electoral process,” Hassan said.
According to him, preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect intended to use the money to bribe eligible voters.
He added that the suspect confessed to the crime during interrogation and pleaded for leniency.
The Commissioner of Police, Muhammad Rabiu, commended the synergy among security agencies in ensuring peaceful polls.
He warned that anyone caught attempting to subvert the electoral process would face the full weight of the law.
The Command reassured residents of its readiness to provide maximum security before, during, and after the elections, urging citizens to exercise their franchise peacefully and without fear.
In Ogun State, two members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) including its Chairman Abayomi Tella, and two officials of NEC, were also reportedly arrested in Iperu in possession of huge sums of cash allegedly meant for vote buying in the Remo Federal Constituency election.
The suspects, who were said to have been arrested in the early hours of Saturday, are reported to have provided very useful information to the police regarding their respective roles in the grand plan to bribe election officials and rig the by-election.
But in a swift reaction, the Ogun PDP claimed Tella was arrested in his hotel in what appears to be a calculated attempt to weaken the opposition.
The PDP alleged that the move was to pave the way for the All Progressives Congress (APC) to manipulate the election in the ruling party’s favour.