Nigeria Content Online

The Osun State
Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC), Rufus Akeju was yesterday questioned by the Police
over assault on the state correspondent of the Leadership Newspaper,
Sefiu Ayanbimpe.

The Police were
acting on a petition written by the Correspondents Chapel of the
Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) on the allegation of assault against
Mr Ayanbimpe by Mr Akeju while performing his professional duties.

Mr Ayanbimpe who
was working on a petition by the state chapter of the Conference of
Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) on N25 million bribery allegation
against Mr Akeju was invited to the office of the REC where the
journalist was physically assaulted by Mr Akeju in the presence of some
senior officials of the commission.

Criminal in nature

The Police acting
on the petition by the NUJ were said to have invited Mr Akeju to the
State Intelligence and Investigations Bureau (SIIB) to explain his role
in the allegation of public assault levelled against him by the NUJ.

The state
Commissioner of Police, Olusegun Solomon had earlier invited some
executive members of the NUJ to his office over the matter with a view
to resolving the matter amicably but realised that the allegation was
criminal in nature, thus referred it to the SIIB for proper
investigation.

On Monday, a
Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo had restrained the INEC from
making use of Mr Akeju in the conduct and supervision of the next
general elections in the state.

The court had
ruled on a case of alleged financial inducement by the ACN leaders
levelled against Mr Akeju by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the
state.