ACN, AP WANT INEC OFFICIAL PROSECUTED

From BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
Posted: Thursday, April 7, 2011

ACTION Congress of Nigeria [ACN] and the Accord Party {AP] in Oyo state yesterday demanded the immediate prosecution of the INEC Head of ICT and  three  other suspects arrested with six  Direct Data Capturing {DDC} machines in an hotel room in Ibadan last month.
Addressing a press conference at the ACN state Secretariat located at Adeoyo area of Ibadan, former governor of the state Alhaji Lamidi Adesina said the party can no longer watch the Police sweep the matter under the carpet especially with a few days to the commencement of the general elections.
The former governor lamented that the Police was yet to prosecute those arrested with the DDC machines or come up with any findings on the presence of the arrested suspects.
Alhaji Adesina alleged that information reaching ACN on the matter was that the Police authorities were not willing to prosecute the suspects especially the INEC Senior staff.
"We demand that those people arrested in an hotel room with the DDC machines should be charged to court unfailingly. Also the fake policemen who were arrested during the last Saturday aborted National Assembly polls should be taken to the court immediately.We are not ready to take anything contrary to these,''he said.
Also at a different press conference held at the Accord Party Secretariat in Ibadan,the Director General of Ladoja Campaign Organisation, Adeolu Adeleke told journalists that the unusual silence of the Oyo state Police Command on the arrested INEC Head of ICT and three others was sending dangerous signals to democracy especially in the state.
Adeleke said that as far as the Accord Party was concerned in the state, the continued holding of the four suspects by the Police was strengthening the belief of Accord Party'' that Police in the state had perfected plans to cover up its findings on  the matter.
"By now, investigation of the matter should have been completed and the suspects charged the court. We are surprised and disappointed that by now, the suspects are still allowed to roam the streets with impunity. It has confirmed our belief that some of the suspects are agents of the ruling party, Adeleke said.
Speaking further, he said ''we have it on good authority that one of the suspects is a staff of the Due Process office in the governor's office which may also account for the refusal of the police to charge the suspects to the court''.
The Director General of Ladoja campaign organization who was a former Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly stressed that failure of the Police to prosecute the arrested INEC staff and the three others may not augur well for the credibility of the nation's growing democracy.