Police arrest Unilorin lecturer over social media post on Kogi road project

A lecturer at the University of Ilorin, Olorunsuwa Ola, has narrated how he was arrested at his home in Ilorin, Kwara State, by the police acting on a petition by the Kogi State Security Adviser, Jerry Omodara.

Mr Ola, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science, said he was arrested on 16 September by a team of about eight police officers and taken to Lokoja.

He said the officers did not present a warrant of arrest to him despite his request to see one.

“I requested for the warrant of arrest. They said the warrant of arrest was at the police headquarters,” Mr Ola told PREMIUM TIMES.

He said the officers told him they would take him to the police headquarters in Ilorin to see the warrant and meet his lawyer.

“While we were going, we got to a point where they were supposed to veer towards the police headquarters. I told them that no, this is the way to police headquarters. They now told me that no, they were taking me to Kogi State,” he said.

The petition

The petition reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES shows that Mr Omodara complained to the Commissioner of Police, Kogi State Command, on 11 September, demanding that Mr Ola be made to produce documents supporting his claim about the road project.

The petition, titled “A Petition Against Mr. Elijah Ololunsuwa on His Grievous Allegation on the Recently Advertised Reconstruction of Kabba-Olle-Iluke Road by the Kogi State Government,” accused the lecturer of making “false allegation” and publications against the Kogi government.

Mr Omodara said Mr Ola had claimed on social media that the road project was World Bank-sponsored, with the Kogi government providing counterpart funding.

The security adviser rejected the claim, saying the Kogi government awarded a contract for the reconstruction project after an advertisement was placed in newspapers and companies were invited to bid.

He asked the police to compel Mr Ola to produce documents supporting his claim of the World Bank involvement in the project, “otherwise he is to be charged for cybercrime and prosecuted.”

Mr Omodara also said he had asked Mr Ola to retract the publication within 24 hours, but that the lecturer subsequently posted what he described as a derogatory message.

The petition was received at the Kogi State Police Command on 11 September, according to the copy reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES.

Arrest and release

Mr Ola said that on the morning of 16 September, two officers approached him outside his home while other officers were positioned around the premises.

According to him, when they arrived in Lokoja, the Commissioner of Police did not allow him to explain his side of the matter.

“He just said that I have been mandated to extract retraction from you,” Mr Ola said.

“I was forced to write retraction of that statement. I was brought to write letter of retraction under duress and apologise to the state government as the condition for my release,” he said.

Mr Ola said he was held for several hours on the first day and asked to return to the police station the following day, where his release formalities were completed.

PREMIUM TIMES contacted Mr Omodara and the Kogi State Commissioner of Police, Naziru Kankarofi, for their responses to the allegations. Neither had responded at the time of filing this report.

Political disagreement

Mr Ola said he had a relationship with Mr Omodara, but it deteriorated following a political disagreement.

He said both men are from Kogi West and belonged to the same political camp, until he began supporting Senator Sunday Karimi’s position that the governorship should rotate to Kogi West.

Mr Ola alleged that his political position contributed to the deterioration of his relationship with Mr Omodara.

However, the petition reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES centres on Mr Ola’s social media statements concerning the road project and does not state that his political views were the reason for the requested arrest.

Mr Ola also said he had previously been threatened with legal action after challenging the claim about the road project on a community platform.

He said he later apologised following pressure from community elders in an attempt to resolve the disagreement.

Threats after release

Mr Ola said he remained concerned about further action against him because of his continued public comments on the matter.

He alleged that a person close to Mr Omodara subsequently warned that he would not be allowed to vote in his community if he continued to speak about the security adviser’s role in his arrest.

He said he was considering legal action over what he described as an unlawful arrest and the circumstances surrounding his detention.

“I am considering a legal redress against my kidnap from my home in Ilorin by Nigerian police,” he said.

He also said he was considering legal action against Mr Omodara, the Kogi Commissioner of Police and the Nigeria Police Force.

Election implications

The arrest also comes against the backdrop of preparations for the 2027 general election and recent commitments by security agencies to protect the electoral process.

On 8 September, the Kogi State Commissioner of Police, Mr Kankarofi, joined the Inter-Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) meeting in Lokoja, where stakeholders reviewed emerging threats and discussed measures to ensure peaceful elections.

At the meeting, Mr Kankarofi urged political actors to comply with electoral laws and refrain from hate speech, incitement and other actions capable of disrupting public peace.

The Kogi Resident Electoral Commissioner, Shehu Wahab, also said INEC expected security agencies to cooperate in delivering a peaceful and credible election.

However, the circumstances surrounding Mr Ola’s arrest raise questions about how those commitments will be applied in practice, particularly where security powers are used in a politically sensitive dispute involving a government official and a political commentator.

The arrest also comes shortly after PREMIUM TIMES reported on Monday that Governor Ahmed Ododo banned night arrests in Kogi, directing security agencies to make arrests during the day and follow due process.

With the elections approaching, any perceived gap between commitments to lawful, peaceful political participation and the conduct of security agencies could affect public confidence in the neutrality of the electoral security process.