Kwara by-election: Furore as police helicopter lands in Omu Aran

The incident which happened at St. Paul Primary School, Omu-Aran at about 1:00 pm, saw people of the area gathering to catch a glance, while others scampered away from the scene.

Reacting to the development, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) camp accused the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) of intimidation with federal might, saying that the helicopter had allegedly brought electoral materials with thumb printed ballot papers, in an attempt to rig the by-election.

In its counter-accusation, a member of the APC camp, Yahaya Seriki, who is a monitoring officer for the poll and former APC governorship aspirant, said that the ruling party was desperate with its accusation.

Also speaking, the head, public affairs of the INEC, Kwara State, Jacob Ayanda, debunked the speculation that the helicopter carried INEC materials, saying they already had and distributed necessary election materials.

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“Everything was already on the ground for the election. It could not have carried INEC material. Surely, the helicopter was on aerial security surveillance to monitor the conduct of the election. And to a large extent, the election was quite peaceful and orderly in almost all the areas involved”.

The Kwara state police command has denied any knowledge of the reported deployment of the police helicopter to Omu-Aran, Irepodun local government area of the state.

Irepodun is one of the four local government areas in Kwara south where by-election into the Irepodun/Ekiti/Oke- Ero/ Isin Federal Constituency.

The social media has been awash with the news of deployment of the police helicopter to Omu- Aran, Saturday day afternoon.

But the spokesman of the state police command, Ajayi Okasanmi, said that he was not aware of such development.

He went further to say that the reason behind the presence of helicopter in the area, if true, cannot be outside the protection of law and order before, during and after the Saturday by-election in the area.

The police spokesman who allayed any possible fear said that people should go about their lawful business, conduct themselves peacefully and be law abiding.

He said that job of the police is to protect lives and property of every Nigerian citizen, adding that men and officers of the command would ensure that the state retains its reputation as a home of peace and harmony.

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party PDP in Kwara state has accused APC leadership of using federal might to allegedly intimidate and harass its members.

The publicity secretary of the PDP, Tunde Ashaolu, in a statement on Saturday said that security operatives reportedly whisked away the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Ahmed on Agriculture and Natural Resources, Hon. Anu Ibiwoye, on a trump up charges.