Police arrest over 20 thugs in Lagos in connection with ballot box snatching

The Spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, Benjamin Hundeyin, has said that a total of over 20 political thugs have been arrested in connection with violence in the state.

According to him, the thugs, who have been linked to various incidences of electoral violence and ballot box snatching from Saturday, February 25, 2023, elections, were arrested following its response to hundreds of distress calls made to the police across the 13,325 polling units in Lagos, a report by channelstv.com has said.

“We have 13,325 polling units in Lagos State. We had distress calls in hundreds of them and we responded swiftly and restored the sanctity of the elections.

“Unfortunately, people don’t want to talk about it because they feel the police are doing their job. So, less than 50 where we had issues is what everybody is talking about which is okay because that is the news.

“We had many instances where armed men responded on time. We have one or two in Mafoluku,” he explained.

The police spokesperson further described the incidents at Okota, Mafoluku, Oshodi, Elegushi, and other areas of the state as “a clear case of political thuggery,” while confirming that “political thugs came in and disrupted the process, in a particular instance, set the ballot box and the ballot papers on fire.”

Taking action on this, he told the channel that they had effected the arrests of some of the people.

“We had issues in Surulere, we had issues in Oshodi, we also had issues in Oke-Afa. We are still collating. So far, we have over 20 political thugs arrested and we also have over 10 polling units where these issues occurred,” he said.