*Alleges assault on colleague by Osun REC

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

OSOGBO – Journalists in Osun State have suspended coverage of the activities of  the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,  in the state until further notice following alleged attack on a colleague by the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Rufus Akeju.

Under the umbrella of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, the journalists also called for the immediate removal of the REC and asked the police and other law enforcement agents to investigate the physical attack on the State Correspondent of Leadership Newspaper, Mr. Sefiu Ayanbimpe in the cause of his duty.

Calls for removal of Osun REC

The union in a statement by Messrs Gbenga Faturoti and Tunji Omofoye, the chairman and Secretary of NUJ Correspondents chapel, Osun state, noted that the actions of the INEC official was a gross violation of the codes of conduct and ethics of the commission.

Comrade Ayanbimpe was working on a petition by the state chapter of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties, CNPP, which petitioned President Goodluck Jonathan on the allegation that the REC was close to the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, chieftain, Sen Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The Conference also alleged that Mr Akeju collected N25 million from the state government during the last voters registration excercise, saying that the REC may not likely be an unbiased umpire in the conduct of the April election.

But when  Mr. Ayanbimpe sought his reaction on the said allegations, the REC was said to have asked Ayanbimpe to come to his office. However, on seeing the journalist, he was alleged to have thrown decorum into the wind and pummeled the journalist to a state of coma before he finally handed him over to men of the State Security Services, SSS.