A lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Ilorin, Chief Elijah Olorunsuwa, has recounted how he feared for his life after his arrest by police officers over a WhatsApp post concerning a road project in Kogi State.
Olorunsuwa alleged that the officers initially told him they were taking him to the Kwara State Police Command but later diverted towards Kogi State, where he was eventually taken to Lokoja. He described the experience as traumatic, disturbing and embarrassing, claiming that he was taken away under circumstances he considered misleading.
The lecturer, who spoke in an interview published on Sunday, October 11, 2026, said the incident began when a group of people arrived at his residence in Ilorin at about 5am. According to him, his wife initially responded to the knock, believing that the visitor might have come to see her or purchase something from their shop.
He said the knocking continued, prompting him to step outside, where a woman informed him that she was looking for him on behalf of her boss. A man among the visitors subsequently identified himself as a police officer from the Kogi State Command and informed him that he was under arrest.
Olorunsuwa said he asked the officers to explain the offence for which he was being arrested, but they reportedly told him that he would be informed when they arrived at the command. He added that he requested to see the arrest warrant, but the officers claimed that it had been deposited at the state command and would be shown to him there.
According to the lecturer, he initially drove his car behind the officers as they proceeded towards an office in Eyenkorin. He said the location was deserted when they arrived, and after the officers made several telephone calls without anyone showing up, he insisted that he would not proceed further without seeing the warrant.
He said he contacted his lawyer, who advised him to insist on seeing the warrant and informed him that he would meet him at the police headquarters. Olorunsuwa said the officers eventually assured him that the warrant would be presented at the state headquarters, prompting him to join their vehicle because his lawyer was already on his way.
However, he alleged that the officers later changed direction and headed towards Kogi State instead of proceeding to the police headquarters in Kwara State.
“When we got to a point, instead of going towards the police headquarters, they diverted towards Kogi State,” he said, adding that when he questioned the change of direction, the officers told him they had decided to take him to Kogi.
The lecturer said he became apprehensive after realising that he was being taken to another state under circumstances different from what he had initially been told. He described the experience as feeling like a kidnapping because, according to him, he did not know where he was being taken.
Olorunsuwa said he subsequently sent messages to two or three close associates, asking them to alert the public that the Kogi State Government’s Special Adviser on Security, Jerry Omodara, had ordered his arrest.
He added that he was eventually taken to Lokoja, where he was served with a copy of the petition against him.
The lecturer explained that the petition arose from a WhatsApp post he had made on a community platform concerning the deplorable condition of the Kabba-Okehi-Oleluke road, which he claimed had remained in poor condition for more than 10 years.
According to him, his post stated that he had received information from the managing director of a Federal Government agency that the World Bank had approved the road project and that the initiative had been facilitated by James Faleke, with the Kogi State Government expected to provide counterpart funding.
Olorunsuwa said he shared the information because he believed it was credible and had also appeared on online platforms. He, however, acknowledged that the post subsequently became the subject of a dispute after Omodara challenged the information.
The lecturer alleged that Omodara responded to the WhatsApp post by asking him to remove it, warning that he could face legal consequences if he failed to do so. Olorunsuwa said he told the security adviser that he was free to approach the court if he believed an offence had been committed.
According to the lecturer, the petition accused him of cybercrime on the grounds that he had allegedly misinformed members of the public about the source of funding for the road project. He said the petition asked the police to apprehend him and charge him to court.
Olorunsuwa said he was surprised that sharing information about the road project had resulted in a police matter, insisting that he believed he had communicated information received from a source rather than deliberately misrepresenting the facts.
He further alleged that he was pressured to retract the post while in police custody and that signing a retraction was presented as a condition for securing his release.
The lecturer said he initially refused to sign the document because he did not believe he had committed any wrongdoing. However, he claimed that reports of the deaths of miners in a Civil Defence cell in Minna heightened his fear about his own safety while detained in another state.
“I was afraid for my life. I did not want to spend another minute in the cell, so I signed the retraction to secure my release,” he said.
He maintained that the retraction was obtained under duress and alleged that it was made a condition for his release from custody.
Olorunsuwa also described the arrest as traumatic for his family, particularly his wife, who was the first person to encounter the officers when they arrived at their residence early in the morning.
He said the experience was made more troubling by what he described as the lack of transparency surrounding the arrest and the circumstances under which he was taken from Ilorin to Lokoja.
However, Omodara has offered a different account of the incident, denying that the lecturer was abducted or that the police were instructed to force him to retract the WhatsApp post.
In a separate interview published on Sunday, the security adviser said he had acted both as an individual and in his official capacity as an adviser to the Kogi State Government when he petitioned the police over the lecturer’s comments.
Omodara said he considered the WhatsApp post misleading because it allegedly suggested that the World Bank, rather than the Kogi State Government, was responsible for the road project.
He said he contacted Olorunsuwa on the same platform and asked him to withdraw the information, adding that he requested documents to substantiate the lecturer’s claim about the World Bank’s involvement.
According to Omodara, the lecturer declined to withdraw the post, prompting him to give him 48 hours to do so before taking further action.
The security adviser also rejected the allegation that Olorunsuwa was abducted, claiming that the state government formally wrote to the police requesting that the lecturer be invited over the petition. He said the lecturer failed to honour the invitation, after which the police proceeded to arrest him.
Omodara, however, said he could not speak for the police regarding the operational details of the arrest or explain why the officers allegedly took Olorunsuwa from Ilorin to Lokoja.
He also denied instructing the police to compel the lecturer to issue a retraction or apology, maintaining that his petition asked Olorunsuwa to provide evidence supporting his claim about the road project or face the legal consequences of making an unsubstantiated allegation.
The security adviser acknowledged that the lecturer eventually wrote an apology and retraction, which he said preceded his release. He rejected the claim that the document was obtained under duress and argued that Olorunsuwa could approach the court if he believed his arrest was unlawful.
Omodara maintained that the road project was a Kogi State Government initiative, saying it had been surveyed, designed and advertised for reconstruction by the state government. He also referred to programmes such as the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project and the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes initiative as avenues through which relevant information about the project could be verified.
He insisted that his concern was the publication of information he considered misleading and denied that the petition was intended to silence criticism of the government.
The two accounts have therefore raised questions about the circumstances of the lecturer’s arrest, the handling of the petition, the alleged demand for a retraction and the disagreement over the funding of the road project.
While Olorunsuwa maintains that he was misled about where the police were taking him and that he signed the retraction out of fear for his safety, Omodara insists that the lecturer was arrested after failing to honour a police invitation and denies that any coercion was involved.
