Apprehension has gripped family members and friends of the Edo State deputy chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Usman Mogaji, whose whereabouts they said they do not know.
They also say they are being harassed by soldiers from the Nigerian Army of School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering in Auchi who, they said, arrested his son, cousin, cook and security man and have held them incommunicado since Sunday.
Counsel to Mogaji, Hilary Oshomah, who was in Benin City yesterday to formally report the incident at the state command of the Nigerian Police told newsmen that the soldiers were acting on instructions from their commandant and a top politician who is not from the area but came with soldiers on election day to supervise the disruption of the election process.
According to him, Mogaji’s offence is that he was the one who mobilised voters to resist the attempt by the politician using the soldiers to disrupt the process on Saturday.
Oshomah alleged that High Chief Raymond Dokpesi was behind the travails of his client.
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“He came with soldiers; himself and Brigadier-General Odidi who is the Commandant of the Nigerian Army School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (NASEME), Auchi – who incidentally is a kinsman of Raymond Dokpesi – to Mogaji’s house and fortunately for him, he got wind of it and he had to hide in the rooftop of his building where he watched as they brutalised members of his family,
“The security man was mercilessly beaten as they insisted that he declare whereabouts his boss. They left with the promise that they are coming back and actually yesterday (Sunday), they came back in the early hours of the morning and of course with the development of the previous day, Mogaji did not sleep in his house. They came back more re-inforced fully armed over 40 of them and broke into the house, vandalised the property, smashed doors and windows and even shot at the door to gain entry.
The pellets are there and at the end of the day they forcibly took away members of his family, including the security man, the son who just returned from Sweden, his cook and his cousin.” (Leadership)