The President has urged Nigerians to vote in Saturday’s National Assembly elections.
There is adequate security, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan said in a national broadcast this morning.
But, there is anxiety in the land over looming violence during the rescheduled general elections.
The police yesterday recovered a large cache of arms from two legislators in Osun State.
Nineteen Pump Action Italian rifles and 14 live cartridges, were recovered from a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member of the House of Assembly from Osu in Atakumosa Local Government Area.
Also recovered from house number 4, Ajido Street, Osu by the police after a trip-off are three expended 7.62mm ammunition, two expended cartridges and one long cutlass.
Osun State Police Commissioner Peter Gana announced the arms seizure yesterday in Osogbo.
Although he declined to name the legislator, the Action Congress of Nigeria (AC N) gave his name as Joshua Ogunleye.
Ogunleye is a former chairman of Atakumosa West Local Government, who is contesting for the House of Representatives seat for the Ijesa South Federal Constituency on the platform of the PDP.
Another legislator, a member of the House of Representatives, is in the police net for allegedly sponsoring violence.
The legislator is also seeking re-election.
The men were armed with two cut-to-size single barrel guns, one cut-to-size double barrel gun, one locally-made pistol, one pump action rifle, two live ammunition of FNC rifle, four live cartridge and other injurious items.
In Kano, men of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) impounded more than 190 pairs of military uniforms and bullet proof vests at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport.
The items were imported by two Nigerians identified simply as Imam and Bashir. They have been arrested.
Kano/Jigawa Area Comptroller of Customs, Alhaji Usman Sanusi Azare told reporters that the consignments were neatly concealed in eight bails.
He said Bashir flew into the Kano Airport on Tuesday night aboard a Middle East Airline to claim the goods.
Azare, who displayed the seized items at the airport, said there were additional dozens of bullet proof vests in the cargo.
He said the military wares were smuggled into the country by a flight marked No; 0573 from Beirut, which landed at the Kano Airport at about 12.45 pm yesterday.
The Customs boss said the suspects had been detained by security agents. He described their action as a breach of national security.
"The most interesting thing about these goods is that they are coming in at a time when our democracy is being tested to the limit."
In Ibadan, a man was arrested for printing ballot papers.
As at the time of his arrest, the printer had printed 7,000 copies of the ballot.
He was rounded up at a printing press in Mokola area of the city around 4:30pm yesterday.
He was arrested by men of the State Security Service (SSS) and was immediately taken to Mokola Police Station for interrogation. He was later moved to the State Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Police Command for further grilling.
It was leant that he made useful statements at Mokola before he was moved to the CID, but it was not clear who his clients were.
The new Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr Saliu Hashimu, confirmed the arrest last night. He said he had instructed his deputy to handle the matter and promised to make public the command’s finding today.
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Accord Party cried out two days ago that Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala ordered all chairmen of caretaker committees in the 33 local governments to deliver theie councils on Saturday or submit their letters of resignation on Monday. The alleged order followed a perceived dismal performance of the PDP in last week’s botched election as the two parties alleged that the few votes counted showed that voters rejected the PDP.
But, Alao-Akala said the gang-up of the opposition parties was a display of the imminent failure they will witness in the coming elections. He said opposition parties were already reading the handwriting on the wall that the PDP was the toast of voters, based on Akala’s laudable performance in the last four years. He spoke through his Special Adviser on Public Communicatiom, Prince Dotun Oyelade.
Osun Police Commissioner Gana said: "Upon information today (Wednesday) at about 6 am that arms and ammunition are hidden at no AA 4, Ajido Street, Osu, a team of policemen, led by the Divisional Police Officer struck immediately. After a search warrant was executed on the house, 19 brand new automatic Pump Action double barren guns, 14 catridges, 3 expended 7.62mm ammunitions, two expended cartridges and one long cutlass were discovered."
"The second suspect, who is a member of the House of Representatives, is wanted for allegedly sponsoring violence in the state, leading to the arrest of eight men in Ila Orangun on April 1, armed with two cut-to-size single barrel guns, two cut-to-size double barrel guns, one locally-made pistol, one pump action riffle, two live ammunition of FNC riffle, four live cartridges and other injurious items.
Gana said the politician had been arrested and is being interrogated by detectives from the command on the matter."
Earlier in the day, Gana held a meeting with leaders of political parties in the state where he warned them against violence during the elections. He said the police were determined to deal with culprits within the confines of to the law.
Gana said: "Anyone caught on election day carrying arms and ammunition would be
arrested and dealt with, according to the laws of the land. For the period I will spend in this state, I will not mortage the collective security for individual interest because my interest is on the general security."
Members of the ACN in Ife Central, Ife East and South as well as the Area Office on Wednesday alleged that the PDP had hatched a plan to maim and harass the residence ahead of the rescheduled National Assembly elections.At a news conference yesterday in Osogbo, the ACN senatorial candidate for Osun East, Mr. Babajide Omoworare, a lawyer, said the spate of violence perpetrated by the PDP before and after the April 2 botched election was enormous.
Omoworare said series of petitions had been sent to the police for investigation, that there were an attempts on his life and those of Chief Rotimi Makinde as well as some other leaders of the party, including Prince Felix Awofisayo.
"Lately, certain unknown persons had invaded the homes and campaign offices of our senatorial and House of Representatives candidates, Hon. Babajide Omoworare and Chief Rotimi Makinde and some other leaders of our party. They posed as security agents from the State Security Services (SSS) and they said the candidates were to be arrested in connection with fake attack on a PDP chieftain when in actual fact it was discovered later that they were planning to kidnapp these leaders.
"Stranger than fiction, the invaders, who gave the impression that they were security agents, went to the places mentioned twice. They insisted on arresting these persons even without warrants of arrest but got out-smarted by the managers of the homes and offices of our candidates.
"Their confidence in doing this, we suspect, has to do with a self-inflicted attack on the Deputy Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Hon. Ropo Oyewole, on April 3."
Citing another case of attempts to harass members of ACN, the party said: "Mr. Biyi Odunlade visited by eight armed men in black suits on March 24, at about 12pm. They were led by five PDP men. The invading fake security men held to ransome and terrorised Odunlade’s children whom they found at home for close to two hours. They had the audacity to forcibly obtain his phone number from one of the children and actually called to say he should give himself up for arrest.
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