TheCable

Yomi Olubamido, chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Somolu constituency 1 in Lagos state, has been arrested for allegedly distributing election materials illegally.

According to NAN, Olaibi Blaize, head of the APC electoral committee for Somolu constituency 1, ordered the arrest of Olubamido on Friday.

Blaize also cancelled the party’s primary for the constituency.

According to the electoral committee chairman, tags and accreditation materials were discovered with delegates before the exercise was scheduled to begin.

“I cannot conduct the elections under this atmosphere because the materials meant for the elections were sighted with some delegates,” he said.

“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 materials 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.”

The committee chairman, who said the process had been compromised, added that the materials ought to have been kept with electoral officers and not party members or delegates.

In his reaction, Abdul-Ahmed Salawu, chairman of Somolu local government, expressed disappointment over the development.

“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,” Salawu said.

“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.”