Senate probes ‘intimidation’ in Kwara by-election

The Senate, yesterday, mandated two of its committees to probe allegations of harassment and intimidation by security agents during last Saturday’s by-election in Kwara State.

The committees on police affairs and national security and intelligence were asked to thoroughly look into the circumstances that led to the use of “unprecedented number of security men” during the by-election for Isin/Irepodun/Ekiti/Oke-Ero Federal Constituency of the state.

Sen. Rafiu Ibrahim (PDP, Kwara), brought the matter before the Senate under matters of privileges.

The senator alleged that a “large number of security men, including senior officers” were deployed to the federal constituency for the election, noting that supporters of the PDP were intimidated and harassed.

“There were reports of a helicopter dropping money to some people. Elections were held in Katsina, Bauchi and Kwara, but we want to know why they deployed that large number of policemen to Kwara,” he said.

“They even included the CSO to a serving governor. The number of policemen deployed was much more than what they announced. Directors of DSS from four states were deployed to the area,” he said.

Senate President Bukola Saraki remarked that, “We have the responsibility here as representatives of the people to ensure that security agencies don’t harass people during elections. Our committees should do their work and report back.”