Osun LG election: Police arrested our officials for committing no crime — OSSIEC Chairman

The Chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC), Hashim Abioye, has condemned the arrest of the commission’s officials by the police during the local government election, insisting that they committed no offence.

Speaking to the press on Saturday, Abioye described the election as peaceful and well-conducted, dismissing earlier concerns raised by the Nigerian Police Force (NPF). 

However, he confirmed that some polling units experienced delays in the arrival of materials due to the arrest of OSSIEC officials. 

He stated that the officials of the commission were arrested despite the fact that no court had issued any order for their arrest.

Abioye also apologised to journalists for the inadequacy of accreditation tags and jackets, attributing the issue to the police sealing off the commission’s office. 

He said, “So far, so good, the reports have been positive, and the conduct has been very smooth and peaceful, as against the false alarm raised by the police. Everywhere is calm. 

“The only thing is that in some of the areas in which materials are supposed to have arrived for voters to cast their vote, we had a report of police arresting our officials. I don’t know on whose order that was made because there is no court that made any order to have warranted the arrest of our officials. 

“I also want to assure our people that, for those who are still awaiting the arrival of our officials, I want to tell them that it is because the police arrested some of our officials for committing no crime at all or going against no lawful order of any court. But we have deployed materials to those polling units because we have enough on the ground. 

“As I am talking to you now, voting is ongoing in those places, and for our people in the media community, I want to apologize for the indirect inadequacy in the tags and the jacket because we have enough, but the police sealed off our office, and that was not warranted at all. All these we will sort out at the end of the day, but generally, the exercise has been very smooth, peaceful, free, and fair, and we thank God for that.”