Kogi guber candidate: How police detained me for ballot paper samples in my car

Olayinka Braimoh, the governorship candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) in Kogi, says he was in police custody all through the voting period on Saturday.

Braimoh, who spoke to journalists in Kabba town after his release, said he was arrested along the Kabba-Obajana road while trying to get to his polling unit on Saturday morning. 

The politician said he was held up in a cell alongside his security and personal aides. 

Braimoh said the security operatives arrested him for finding leftover ballot paper samples, used for voter education, in the trunk of one of his vehicles. 

“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,” Braimoh said. 

“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 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 part 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.”