Feb. 21, 2023

The Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Akin Osuntokun, has said that the hand of one of the party’s supporters was amputated after the fellow was attacked around the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) in Lagos on February 11, 2023.

Osuntokun disclosed this on The 2023 Verdict, Channels Television’s special election programme on Tuesday.

He also tasked the new police commissioner in Lagos, Idowu Owohunwa to check the activities of the Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Lagos, Olusegun Agbaje and disallow any form of electoral “subversion”.

Asked about his rating of INEC’s preparation ahead of the February 25 and March 11 polls, the LP campaign boss said, “I won’t score the preparation a 100 percent. There are some factors that challenge that conclusion.

One of that is the predisposition to voter suppression through violence: we have been a victim of that, especially in Lagos in which INEC people actually responded to people looking for their PVCs (Permanent Voter Cards) discriminatorily.

“When we had the rally in Lagos, our supporters were prevented in certain areas from coming to the Tafawa Balewa Square and some of them were injured. As we speak one of them has had his hand amputated.

“So, of course, when you take these into consideration, you cannot be confident that this is going to work well.”

Osuntokun also expressed reservations about the Bimodal Voter Registration System (BVAS), the technology that will be used for the accreditation and authentication of voters come 2023.

“Once the fact that the BVAS or the electronic transmission introduction to the system is supposed to preclude the possibility of over-voting or something like that but according to the judgement of the tribunal on the Osun State election that was conducted a while ago, the tribunal nullified the victory of the PDP on account of over-voting, now were does that come in?” he queried.

The Lagos State Police Command had condemned that February 11 attack as “reprehensible” and vowed to get to the bottom of the incident.

Lagos police spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin had similarly said four persons were injured during the attack by thugs on Obi’s supporters and that the injured and other witnesses are assisting the police with relevant information that would aid the apprehension and prosecution of the attackers.