Police recover snatched ballot boxes, weapons from suspected hoodlums in Lagos

By Sodiq Adelakun

The Commissioner of Police (CP), Lagos State Command, Idowu Owohunwa, said that some weapons, ballot boxes, and sensitive materials snatched by some suspected thugs were recovered during the gubernatorial election in Lagos State.

Owohunwa disclosed this on Saturday to journalists after he rounded off his monitoring activities for the gubernatorial election in the state.

He said some persons were also arrested over various electoral offenses in different parts of the state, stressing that there were some isolated cases during the election.

“We made a number of arrests. We also made some recoveries, in terms of INEC-sensitive materials, ballot boxes, and offensive weapons. The number of arrests is still being compiled by our field officers.

“By Sunday morning, I will know the exact number and make it public. No one was killed in Lagos state during the gubernatorial election.”

Owohunwa described the exercise in Lagos state as excellent, in spite of some pockets of violence.

He noted that the isolated cases were actually challenging to the security agencies, stressing, however, that those breaches were anticipated and measures were put in place to check the situation.

“Our operational plans actually anticipated that there would be breaches. It was planned in a way that whenever it occurred, our attention was drawn to such breaches.

“We have a second layer action plan which we activated in most of the isolated instances where the breaches were reported. We promptly responded and restore order,” he said.