Two journalists covering the ongoing Osun State governorship rerun election were on Thursday harassed by police officers in Orolu Local Government Area.
In a report on its live coverage of the poll, Premium Times said its journalist, Mr. Kemi Busari, was briefly arrested by the police for taking pictures at Polling Unit one, Ward 8 in the LGA.
The polling unit is located at Kajola Community Primary School.
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The newspaper wrote,
Mr Busari is one of the accredited observers deployed for the election in partnership with the Centre for Democracy and Development.
Arriving at the polling unit at about 7.40a.m., the journalist thought it fit to capture the voting process, but this landed him in police net.
He was arrested and and dragged to the leader of the police delegation, with the name tag S. Abubakar.
Mr Abubakar ordered that the journalist, who wore the appropriate observer tag and apron, be arrested.
Promptly, one of his subordinates grabbed the journalist by his trouser and dragged him to a stationed police vehicle with the inscription ‘police skynet squad.’
The gun-wielding officer, Abdul Usman, confiscated all his gadgets and locked him in the vehicle.
It later took the intervention of Mr Abubakar to get this journalist released.
“We release you because you are a press man. Let him go. He’s a PREMIUM journalist. We don’t want any problem here.
“You are a journalist you are supposed to know. No camera is allowed here,” Mr Abubakar said.
The police officer’s stance contradicts the statement of the electoral commission, INEC, which explained that voters and participants were allowed to go with their phones to polling units but not polling booths after ballot paper must have been issued to an accredited voter.
Mr Busari was released with the instruction that he should not dare “snap pictures in the polling unit.”
Same instruction was given to other observers present.
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Meanwhile, The Cable, on its live coverage of the rerun, reports that thugs harassed and seized the phone of TheCable reporter, Taiwo Adebulu, for taking pictures.
Mr. Adebulu later retrieved his phone after the intervention of a security operative.
The incident happened at the same polling unit.
