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Police Arrest Ruling APC Chairman In Lagos Constituency For Fraud As Party Cancels Primary

Olaibi Blaize, the Head of the APC Electoral Committee, Somolu Constituency 1, on Friday said he ordered the arrest of Olubamido.

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested Yomi Olubamido, the All Progressives Congress chairman in the Somolu Constituency 1 over alleged unlawful distribution of delegates’ tags and accreditation materials during the primary election.
Olaibi Blaize, the Head of the APC Electoral Committee, Somolu Constituency 1, on Friday said he ordered the arrest of Olubamido. 

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The APC held the House of Assembly and House of Representatives primaries across the 40 Lagos State constituencies and 24 federal constituencies in the state.
According to The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Blaize also cancelled the party’s primary election in the constituency.
Blaize, who addressed the delegates, said, “I cannot conduct the elections under this atmosphere because the materials meant for the elections were cited with some delegates.
“I was told from the APC Secretariat in Acme that the election materials have been sent to the local government, but when I got here, l asked Olubamido about the materials and he denied receiving anything from the state secretariat.
“I was surprised when l saw the delegates’ tags and other election metarials with party members and delegates. On this note, l decided to cancel the process here and l told a police officer to arrest Olubamido for illegal possession of election materials.”
Blaize said the process had been compromised.
He said the tags and other election material ought to have been strictly kept in the hands of electoral officers and not party members or delegates.
Reacting, the Chairman of Somolu Local Government, Abdul-Ahmed Salawu said that he was disappointed at the alleged action of Olubamido.
He alleged, “We have a sole aspirant for House of Representatives and 11 aspirants for House of Assembly, and some materials were given to Olubamido since yesterday for the elections but he refused hand them over.
”He was supposed to hand over all the materials to me, but he went ahead to distribute them himself and when the electoral officer came, l was asked about the materials and I said l was not aware of any.
”When l called him to explain about the materials, he could not explain.”
Somolu Constituency 1 has 30 ad-hoc delegates drawn from six wards.