The Director-General of the Imole Campaign Council, Senator Lere Oyewumi, has alleged that 52 people were arrested at the residence of the lawmaker representing Irewole/Isokan State Constituency, Ibrahim Inaolaji, in the early hours of Saturday.
Oyewumi made the allegation while speaking with journalists at his polling unit, Unit 9, St Peter and Paul/Sumoye Primary School, Ikire, as voting got underway in the Osun governorship election.
He alleged that about 24 policemen stormed the lawmaker’s residence around midnight, damaged the gate and took away those inside, including the Accord Party chairman in the local government.
“It is very unfortunate what we witnessed here. The whole drama started at midnight when about 24 policemen stormed the house of our House of Assembly member, Ibrahim Inaolaji,” Oyewumi said.
He explained that members of the Inaolaji family, who he said normally reside in Ibadan, had gathered at the residence in Irewole Local Government Area.
“The Inaolaji family is a very big family and they reside in Ibadan. Since their son is the Honourable member, they used to come and register in Irewole Local Government,” he said.
“They were all around in his house, eating and drinking. The policemen just stormed the house, destroyed the gate and arrested about 52 people there, including the local government chairman of Accord. They are in Osogbo, as we speak.”
Oyewumi further alleged that the arrests were part of a wider pattern of targeting Accord Party members ahead of the election.
According to him, the party chairman in Ward 6 and a youth leader had also been arrested days earlier and taken to Osogbo.
“Four days ago, they arrested the chairman of Accord in Ward 6. Six days ago, they arrested one of our very prominent youth leaders. All those ones are in Osogbo now, languishing there without any reasonable offence, just to make sure that they are not at home during the election,” he alleged.
The campaign council DG also raised concerns over alleged attacks at some polling units in Ikire after voting began.
He alleged that an Accord Party agent was attacked at Orieru Polling Unit in Ward 1 before the suspected attackers moved to other polling locations.
Oyewumi said another incident occurred at St Joseph Primary School 1 and 2, where he alleged that a voter was beaten and taken away on a motorcycle before being brought back about 20 minutes later.
He said he had contacted both the police and military authorities over the reported incidents and questioned the failure of security personnel to prevent the alleged attacks.
The allegations had not been independently verified at the time of filing the report.