The Cross River Police Command paraded 16 suspects arrested for various alleged electoral offences in the state’s Ogoja Local Government Area on Saturday.
The suspects were caught with arms and ammunition during their arrest in Ogoja after the polls, according to the Command spokesperson, SP Irene Ugbo, who addressed reporters while parading them.
Ugbo stated that the arrest came after a thorough manhunt for those who disrupted some voting centers in the council area during the election.
“You will recall that the command had issued several warnings to the people not to allow themselves be used by desperate politicians during the elections and that anyone caught will have himself to blame.
“These people you see here didn’t take our warning seriously and they are some of the people that tried to disrupt the elections in Ogoja last Saturday.
“They were caught with various arms and ammunition in Ogoja and they will be punished in accordance with the law of the land,” she stated.
According to the command spokesperson, the suspects were discovered to have worked for a candidate during last Saturday’s elections.
NAN reports that during the parade, some of the suspects claimed to be members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as well as vigilantes in their community in Obudu Local Government Area.
They also claimed that they were never arrested in Ogoja, but rather in Obudu, with no knowledge of the crime they had committed.
Mr Francis Ubi, who claimed to be an APC coordinator in his polling unit in Obudu, explained how they were chosen at random by soldiers in Obudu a day before the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
According to him, “We were brought here on trumped-up charges. I do not belong to any group or political party other than the APC where I coordinate my polling unit in Obudu.
“As I speak with you, over N500,000 was paid into my account to coordinate my unit during the elections and I am also a member of the vigilante. I have five others of my members here who were also arrested.
“While I was arrested in my house in Obudu, others were arrested at a check point in Obudu while on duty.
“Where they were arrested was approved for us to be keeping security by the council chairman who also approved the use of specific guns for us.
“I don’t understand what is happening. Those that are being paraded with us I don’t know any of them and only came to meet them here as we are being paraded.
“We (Vigilante) have been the one keeping Obudu safe because of the level of insecurity there in recent times. We don’t understand what we are being accused of.”
Ubi stated that after his arrest, he was taken to army barracks in Ogoja, where he remained for several days before being transferred to the Police Command in Calabar on Friday.
Ugbo, on the other hand, insisted that the suspects would be arraigned in court next week.
