Over 20 political thugs have reportedly been detained, according to SP Benjamin Hundeyin, the Lagos State Police Command’s spokesperson, in connection with incidents of electoral violence and ballot box snatching that took place in various parts of the state on Saturday, February 25, during the presidential and National Assembly elections.
This information was revealed by Hundeyin in a Channels TV interview. He claimed that the police responded to hundreds of emergency calls across the 13,325 voting locations in Lagos.
He characterized the episodes at Okota, Mafoluku, Oshodi, Elegushi, and other areas of the state as “a clear case of political thuggery”. Hundeyin confirmed that “political thugs came in and disrupted the process, in a particular instance, set the ballot box and the ballot papers on fire”.
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“We had issues in Surulere, we had issues in Oshodi, we also had issues in Oke-Afa. We are still collating. So far, we have over 20 political thugs arrested and we also have over 10 polling units where these issues occurred,” he said.
He claimed that the police had already made preparations for some polling units where problems were anticipated but “the control room was very busy yesterday (Saturday).”
“It wasn’t like armed men were not there; they were there but we kept moving men around as the need arose. We have 13,325 polling units in Lagos State. We had distress calls hundreds of them and we responded swiftly and restored the sanctity of the elections. Unfortunately, people don’t want to talk about it because they feel the police are doing their job. So, less than 50 where we had issues is what everybody is talking about which is okay because that is the news. We had many instances where armed men responded on time. We have one or two in Mafoluku” he said
