Ekiti election monitors, Senator Arise taken to Abuja

Three of the seven election monitors arrested on Saturday in Ifaki, by officers of the Nigerian Police, were moved to Abuja on Sunday morning to face charges of espionage and forgery.

This is even as a police source said a senator, Ayo Arise, PDP Ekiti North, who was arrested on Saturday for disturbing the voting process at Oye, has also been moved to Abuja.

The monitors, part of a civil society team drafted to the state, had earlier been assaulted by a gang of suspected political thugs who destroyed the vehicle in which they were travelling and nearly killed two of their members.

The arrested people include Abubakar Momoh, an associate professor of Political Science at the Lagos State University; Azeez Olaniyan, a lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Ado -Ekiti, Ekiti State, Wahab Oyedokun, a lawyer with the National Human Rights Commission; Bimbo Olaniyan, Programme Officer with Action Aid; and three other volunteers from the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights.

The thugs, who accused the monitors of working for the candidate of the Action Congress, Kayode Fayemi, reportedly beat up and tore the clothes on both Dr. Momoh and Mr. Oyedokun. They were also accused of putting used tyre around Mr. Oyedokun's neck, in preparing to setting him on fire.

Dr. Fayemi is a former Executive Director of Centre for Democracy and Development and a leading civil society activist. Most of the supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party and a few of his own supporters in AC were of the opinion that the civil society monitors were in Ekiti to support Fayemi's candidacy.

When the police intervened to save the badly beaten monitors, they speedily arrested them for violating the State electoral laws and took them to Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, where they were locked up for the night.

"All efforts to secure bail for them so far have failed," said a statement sent by Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a legal official of the Open Society Justice Initiative. "The Police have seized their computers. They are accusing the victims of having used these computers to collect and send out to foreign countries, results from the voting yesterday... Last night, they were briefly granted bail to enable them get medical treatment but the bail was promptly revoked because the police claimed the bail was not approved by a superior Police Officer."

A member of the civil society monitoring team, Oluwabode Akinfemi of the Environmental Rights Action, said that his own group was also nearly beaten up by the same gang.

"You know, Ifaki is a must-pass town for anyone going to Ado-Ekiti," said Mr. Akinfemi. "When we got to Ifaki, we ran into thugs. They were wearing election monitors shirts as well, so when we first noticed them, we did not entertain any fear. We then noticed they were armed and were gathering stones. They started shouting ‘AC! AC!!' We didn't reply. They stopped and asked us which party we supported.

"We said we did not support any. We explained we were just election monitors and showed them our materials. When we noticed they were hesitating about taking a decision, we escaped and called the co-ordinators to tell others not to pass there. But it was too late. Some students were equally beaten and the Momoh team suffered the worst."

Shifting charges

Mr. Akinfemi, who said he was with the arrested monitors on Sunday morning until they were put in a vehicle that took them to Abuja, confirmed that Dr. Momoh was badly injured and needed medical attention.

He said the police allegation against the detained team has evolved over the hours. "Initially, they said they found election materials on them. Then they said they found election results with Dr. Momoh. Now the police said they are holding them for spying."

Mr. Akinfemi said the monitors were not in Ekiti to support any of the candidates. "We didn't go there to work for AC," he said. "We went to ensure a credible election. We were accredited by INEC. It is sad that our leaders do not want us to hold a free-and-fair elections."

The Public Relations Officer of the Ekiti State police command, Mike Akindipe, said all elections-related matters were not in the hands of the state command. But police sources informed us that the men would be charged to court on Monday.