Kogi state police officers arrested Elijah Olorunsuwa, a lecturer at the University of Ilorin and a social commentator, on Wednesday over a WhatsApp post in which he claimed a road project in the state was World Bank-funded rather than state-funded.
About eight officers arrived at Olorunsuwa's residence in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, at around 5am and took him to Kogi state. He was released the same evening and asked to return on Thursday, September 17.
Arrest Details and Warrant Dispute
As reported by The Cable, Olorunsuwa noted that when the officers came to his door, he asked to see a warrant of arrest, which they could not produce. He requested to drive his own car to the nearest area command, and the officers agreed. When they got there, no officers were available to receive them, so Olorunsuwa agreed to join the police van on the condition that they would go to the Kwara police command headquarters.
The officers did not honour that agreement and instead drove him to Kogi.
Petition Behind the Arrest
At the Kogi police station, Olorunsuwa was shown a petition dated September 11, addressed to the Kogi police commissioner and signed by Jerry Omodara, security adviser to the Kogi state government. Omodara accused the lecturer of making "consistently false allegation and publications" against the state government through social media.
The petition focused on a comment Olorunsuwa made in the Oke Offin community WhatsApp group, where a member had posted that the Kogi government was reconstructing the Kabba-Oke-Offin-Olle-lluke road. Olorunsuwa replied that the project was World Bank-sponsored and that the state was only required to pay a counterpart fund. Omodara described the comment as "false, malicious and with the intention to deceive unsuspecting public and discredit the government of the day."
The petition called for Olorunsuwa to be "apprehended" and required to produce documents from the World Bank to support his claim, failing which he should be charged for cybercrime and prosecuted.
Lecturer's Account and Omodara's Response
Olorunsuwa said Omodara, who hails from the same Oke Offin community in Kabba/Bunu LGA, had first asked him to delete the post on the WhatsApp group and threatened legal action if he refused. After elderly members of the group appealed for calm, Olorunsuwa deleted his comments and called Omodara directly. During that call, the security adviser told him that Governor Usman Ododo had directed that he be prosecuted. Omodara then demanded a public retraction, which Olorunsuwa refused.
"I told him that he should feel free to take me to court. I didn't pull down the post," the lecturer said.
Reacting to the situation, Omodara maintained that Olorunsuwa's claim about World Bank funding was false and that the road project was solely financed by the Kogi state government. He said the lecturer's refusal to retract his post, even after being corrected, left the state government with no choice but to petition the police commissioner.
