Friday, February 04, 2011


No fewer than 10 persons including two youth corps members who are ad-hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were yesterday arrested and detained by the Oyo State Police Command over strange discovery of Direct Data Capture (DDC) machine in a forest near Fulani settlement in the Saki-west Local Government Area of Oyo State.

The Chairman of the Local Government, Alhaji Salami Nasiru was also being interrogated by the police over his role in the crime. He was alleged to have aided the offence by providing vehicles that conveyed people from the town to the forest, which was about 15 kilometres to the town, all in a bid to get them registered.

Alhaji Nasiru and others implicated in the offence were being detained by police in the council area.
According to a source close to the town, the DDC machine and the two corps members operating it were said to have left the registration centre where many people had been registering and suddenly disappeared with the machine. The source said they were later found in the thick forest with some people allegedly working for the chairman of the council.

The strange discovery of the machine and the people in the forest was said to have sparked off protest from people in the town, who accused the INEC officials of encouraging fraud by conniving with some politicians to rig the forthcoming elections. It took the timely intervention of police in the area before the protest could be prevented from turning into bloodbath, as the suspects were whisked away.

A member of the Accord Party (AP) in the area, Jimoh West, who spoke with journalists said the chairman, two INEC registration officers and eight others were currently being detained by the police in connection with the strange discovery, having reported the matter to the Saki-west Police Division.
He said the machines were transferred from Ward 10, Egbeda , Saki-west to Ruga area, a Fulani settlement where the chairman was found with others already registering some people.

West said: “When people alerted us about the DDC machine in the forest, we went to report at the police station and were later accompanied by policemen to the scene of the incident, about 15 kilometres to the forest where the machine was taken.”

The INEC Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ayodele Folami, while speaking with Daily Sun said he was yet to get report from the electoral officer in charge of Saki-west, while assuring that necessary action would be taken as soon as the report arrived.

Folami said, “presently, we are not aware because we are still awaiting reports from our electoral officer from Saki-west. Since the incident happened today (yesterday), you don’t expect us to know what happened until we get reports but what will DDC machine be doing in the forest?” he queried.
But the state Police Public Relation Officer, Suprintendent Olatunji Ajimuda confirmed the story saying, those arrested would soon be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for further investigation.

He said it was a great offence taking the machine to an unauthorised place, assuring that thorough investigation would be carried out. He added that those arrested would not go unpunished.

is that an evil forest?