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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
Kogi State Police Command has disclosed that gunmen attacked the secretary of the governorship election tribunal, Mr David Umar Mike, in Lokoja and made away with sensitive petition documents on the just concluded gubernatorial election in the state.
The command’s spokesperson, SP William Aya, made the disclosure while addressing newsmen in Lokoja, the state capital, on Wednesday.
He said the attackers of the state governorship tribunal secretary carted away all the petitions filed by five political parties at gunpoint.
According to him, the documents carted away from the secretary include petitions filed by four political parties– Action Alliance (AA), Action Peoples Party (APP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) as well as two record books and a bag containing his personal item.
“On Monday, 04/12/2023 at about 1820hrs, one Mr David Umar Mike, secretary to Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal along with Labode Apreala, a female confidential secretary and Hassimu Adamu, assistant secretary, came to State Criminal Investigation Department, Kogi State Police Headquarters and reported that on the said day, three of them left their hotel rooms in Lokoja about 1300hrs, heading to their office at the high court complex driving in his (David’s) Peugeot 406 car.
“That just before the CBN at about 1320hrs, one SUV vehicle which had earlier overtaken him blocked his car with two other SUVs following behind.
“All of them surrounded and blocked him as he attempted to reverse. That he saw about seven hooded men all heavily armed and dressed in black attire who shot severally into the air and dragged him and his two other colleagues out of their car, ransacked the car and made away with all the petition documents,” the police spokesperson said.
Aya added that the Commissioner of Police, Bethrand Onuoha , had ordered for a thorough and diligent investigation into the incident.
He also advised the public to avoid statements that may prejudice ongoing investigation into the matter, appealing to anyone with useful information on the incident to provide same to the command.
SDP and All Progressives Congress (APC) had traded words over the attack on Tuesday, with both sides accusing each other of masterminding the attack. While SDP alleged that the attack was perpetrated by the ruling party’s hired political thugs, APC said it was staged by the opposition party to indict the ruling party.