The Special Adviser on Special Projects to Rivers State Governor, Cyril Dum Wite, on Monday denied reports that he was arrested for been in possession of military weapons and huge amount of money during the last Saturday’s legislative re-run election in the state.
Denying the allegation in Port Harcourt, the state capital yesterday, Wite who is reportedly on police bail, blamed his ordeal on the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, stressing that the military men that arrested him were manipulated by one Friday Inkee, the party’s candidate in Khana state constituency 2.
Report of Wite’s arrest alongside three others in Khana Local Government Area of the state with some cash and a security uniform was all over the news at the weekend.
Explaining what transpired, Wite disclosed that he was arrested by soldiers at the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, office in Bori where he had gone to lodge a complaint that election materials for his Ward 12 in Lugbara in Khana constituency 1 had been allegedly hijacked.
He said, “I had no uniform. What you saw on the video with about three men wearing camouflage, I had no knowledge of them; I don’t know them from Adams. I was seated on the floor when they brought them.
“I think they were arrested on the road; the police can attest to that. I don’t know them; they were not arrested with me. I was beaten and kicked to the floor at the INEC office in Bori; I was not arrested from anywhere.
“I had no uniform at all. In this case, only one police uniform and it belonged to one of the four police officers that were to serve in my unit. All of them came to identify that uniform that it belonged to one of the officers there.
“What really happened was that they had been at the RAC centre in my village since last Thursday. A cousin of mine had assisted them to provide them with food, water and where to take their bath.
“On this Saturday morning, the man had gone to his room to take his bath and left his bag in the car. So when the information came that they were hijacking election materials at Bori, I just told my cousin who owns the car to let us go there.
“When they started beating us and searching his car, they saw a bag and when they emptied the content of the bag, a uniform was there and an identity card that belonged to that police officer who was posted to the RAC centre, clearly on election duties and who was assisted by the community where he was posted to,” he said.
“The man (the policeman) came and identified his uniform and said he was taking his bath and left his bag in the owner’s car. The car is not mine. The man identified his bag, containing his uniform, ID card and his Bible. They gave him his bag and allowed him to go back to the RAC centre.
“The owner of the uniform is not a fake police officer; he was posted on an election duty and he identified his bag. What is wrong in assisting the Nigerian police to work?
“The uniform does not belong to me; it does not belong to the owner of the car. The owner left the uniform in the car to take his bath and hurriedly we took the car to go and prevent the hijack of election material.”
