A staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), supervising the collection of voters card, Makanjuola Bilahu, has been arrested.
He was arrested alongside with a corp member attached to the INEC office as an Ad-Hoc staff in charge of voter’s card distribution, Orji Nkenna.
Also arrested with them was one Oluwatobi Ogini for alleged electoral malpractice.
They were all arrested by the Osun State Police command for allegedly selling Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in the Atakumosa West Local Government Area, Osu, Osun State.
This was disclosed in Osogbo on Saturday by the command’s spokeswoman, Yemisi Opalola.
She stated that 38 PVCs had been collected from the accused.
The statement read in part, “On 30th June, 2022 at about 1040hrs, the complainant reported at Osu Division that, on 29th June, 2022, at about 1000hrs, he went to Independent National Electoral Commission office located at the Atakumosa West Local Government Area, Osu, Osun State, to collect his permanent Voter Card but could not find it.
“He consequently demanded for the register and discovered that, one Orji Desmond Nkenna, a corps member attached to INEC office as an ad hoc staff in charge of Voter Cards’ distribution has collected his PVC on the order of one Wale Ojo and Ijamakinwa Olaoluwa, now at large, both members of the Peoples Democratic Party for financial transaction.
“On receipt of the complaint, police detectives immediately swung into action and arrested the principal suspect along with the INEC supervisor to the alleged corps member, Mrs Makanjuola Bilahu, ‘f’, aged 58 years, and one Mr. Oluwatobi Ogini, ‘m’, aged 32 years, to investigate the level of their involvement.”
The police noted that they are pursuing the evading suspects and that, once their investigation was complete, the suspects will face charges in court.
In the meantime, the police leadership has started conducting raids in the state’s “black areas” to find criminals who are committing crimes there before the governorship election.
“18 suspected criminals were arrested. They are currently undergoing interrogation,” the statement added