The incident allegedly occurred as he was en route to the office to affix copies of the petition filed on December 2, 2023.
In an official statement released on Wednesday, the Kogi State Police Command disclosed that the directive for the investigation followed the submission of an official report by the assaulted secretary and two other individuals at the command’s headquarters in Lokoja.
The Public Relations Officer of the command, William Aya, conveyed the details in the statement, saying, “On Monday, 04/12/2023, at about 1820hrs, one Mr. David Umar Mike, ‘m’, Secretary to Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, along with Labode Apreala (f), Confidential Secretary, and Hassimu Adamu, Assistant Secretary, came to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Kogi State Police Headquarters, and reported that on the said date three of them left their hotel rooms in Lokoja about 1300hrs heading to their office at the High Court complex driving in his (David’s) Peugeot 406 car.
“That just before the CBN (office) at about 1320hrs, one SUV, which had earlier overtaken him, blocked his car with two other SUVs following behind. All of them surrounded and blocked him as he attempted to reverse.
“That he saw about seven hooded men, all heavily armed and dressed in black attire who shot severally into the air and dragged him and his two other colleagues out of their car, ransacked the car and made away with all the documents, including petitions filed by four parties namely, Action Alliance, Action People’s Party (APP), Peoples Redemption Party and Social Democratic Party two record books/a bag containing his personal items.
“He claimed to have also reported to the DSS office. Hence, a thorough and diligent investigation into the incident has been ordered by the Commissioner of Police, Kogi State Command.”
Aya added, “The attention of the Kogi State Police Command has been drawn to a series of distorted information on the incident, hence the need to set the records straight.
