The Osun State Police Command has arrested Abiola Ibrahim, a member of the state House of Assembly, over an alleged attempt to mobilise about 300 people from outside the state to vote in the governorship election.
Ibrahim, who represents the Irewole/Isokan constituency and is a member of the Accord Party, was arrested on Friday night alongside a group of people reportedly found at his residence in Ikire, Irewole Local Government Area.
Police said more than 200 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) were recovered during the operation.
The arrest came on the eve of Saturday’s governorship election, amid heightened security operations aimed at preventing electoral malpractice and other activities that could undermine the poll.
In a video shared by PUNCH on X, Ibrahim was seen making a preliminary statement in which he identified himself and allegedly said he facilitated the movement of about 146 people from neighbouring states into Osun to participate in the election.
The police, however, said they were still profiling those found at the lawmaker’s residence.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Ojelabi, said the command had earlier received a complaint from the Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly that armed men had besieged his residence.
Ojelabi said the police immediately contacted the Divisional Police Officer in the area and directed him to investigate the complaint.
“We had gotten a complaint and immediately, the complaint unit of the Nigeria Police Force swung into action,” he said.
“We contacted the DPO of that area and directed him to proceed to the residence of the speaker of the Osun House of Assembly, following the alarm he raised that armed men had besieged his house. But we could not confirm that allegation.”
The police spokesman said officers subsequently arrested a group of people at the residence of a “political stakeholder”.
“However, we also made an arrest at a stakeholder’s residence, where we located 300 unaccounted individuals. Presently, we are profiling them,” he said. “Osun remains very calm and we urge residents to come out en masse to vote.”
The arrest came as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) prepared to conduct the election across Osun’s 30 local government areas.
INEC had cleared 14 political parties to contest the election, with the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party absent from the final list.
The leading contenders included incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke of Accord, All Progressives Congress candidate Bola Oyebamiji and African Democratic Congress candidate Najeem Salaam.
The commission said 2,339,233 registered voters were eligible to participate in the election.
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