The group accused Buraimoh of being in possession of firearms which some hoodlums allegedly used to injure voters on Election Day.
The Lagos State Chapter of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has asked security agents to arrest the Council Chairman of Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area, Valentine Buraimoh for allegedly deploying thugs to disrupt the state local government elections on Saturday.
The group accused Buraimoh of being in possession of firearms which some hoodlums allegedly used to injure voters on Election Day.
They also accused him of carting away ballot boxes in the FESTAC area of the state, with the help of the thugs.
The human rights organisation further alleged that an ex-Lagos lawmaker, Dipo Olorunrinu, who is said to have a pending case with the Lagos State Police Command, was an accomplice in the atrocities perpetrated in the state last Saturday.
CDHR disclosed this in an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Bola Tinubu and some other chieftains on the APC, on Tuesday.
In the letter signed by the CDHR State Chairman, Kehinde Adeoye, the group asked Buhari, Tinubu, all APC leaders and the nation’s security agents should investigate other violent activities that went down that same day in Surulere and Agege where two people were killed.
“During the campaign towards May 29, 2021 APC Primaries, there were several rounds of gunshots fired into the air at 512 Road, FESTAC Town by members of Hon. Dipo Olorunrinu’s group while he was present at the location.
“The incumbent Council Chairman of the Amuwo Odofin Local Government, Engineer Valentine Buraimoh personally led thugs to chase away voters and cart away ballot boxes to an unknown destination while some people suffered various degrees of body injury, particularly in Ward K.
“Our concern as members of the civil society is to ensure that the lives of people are not endangered. There are pictorial and video evidence of the use of illegal firearms at the primaries,” the letter partly read.
The group requested that the culprits should be brought to justice, for Lagos to have peace.
“We hereby call on President Muhammadu Buhari as the Chief Security Officer of the country; National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; the Governor of Lagos State as the Chief Security Officer of the state; the National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Mungono (rtd); the Director-General of the Department of State Services, Alhaji Yusuf Magaji Bichi; Inspector General of Police Alkali Baba Usman; Lagos State Commissioner of Police, CP Hakeem Odumosu; Lagos Director of State Security Service (SSS) to order a high-powered investigation into this security matter and life-threatening issue considering the spate of insecurity currently in Nigeria and also mop up the firearms from the community used during the attack.
“We call on President Muhammadu Buhari and all the security agencies to immediately arrest Engineer Valentine Buraimoh in order to mop up arms from the community (used) during the attack and prosecute him in a competent court of jurisdiction.”
“We demand to know the state of the investigation by the Nigeria Police in Lagos State on the arrest of Hon. Dipo Olorunrinu by the Commissioner of Police with respect to illegal firearms and ammunition in 2018,” the letter added.