The Commissioner of Police in charge of the 2026 Osun governorship election, Erale Samuel Etaifo, said about 100 people have been in custody over alleged plans to disrupt the governorship election for the past one month.

He, however, said no arrests have been made today (so far) as a result of electoral violence in Saturday’s ongoing governorship election in the state.

Etaifo disclosed this on Saturday while speaking with Channels Television during the poll.

Etaifo said the suspects were picked up over the past month as part of efforts to prevent violence and other disruptions during the election.

According to him, some of those arrested allegedly came into Osun from neighbouring states, including Ondo and Ekiti, with the intention of causing trouble.

“We have about 100. I can guarantee 100 because the IG sent me here to come and pacify and stabilise the state. For the past one month, we’ve been going around picking them. Some people came from Ekiti, Ondo, you can name all sorts of where, just to come and disturb. So we have some of them in custody,” he said.

The police commissioner, however, said no arrest had been made on Saturday as a result of electoral violence, explaining that there had been no reason to make such arrests as of the time of the interview.

“For now, none, because there’s no reason for it,” Etaifo said when asked how many people had been arrested on election day.

He also assured Nigerians that the police were committed to ensuring a free, fair, transparent and credible election.

Addressing allegations by Governor Ademola Adeleke concerning a police officer allegedly deployed from Port Harcourt and identified as “London”, Etaifo said the Inspector-General of Police had the authority to deploy serving officers to any part of the country.

“The most important thing you need to know, every police officer has the right—the IG has the right to deploy any police officer to anywhere within Nigeria and abroad,” he said.

Etaifo said the election was not about an individual police officer but about Nigeria, adding that officers had been deployed to areas considered volatile to strengthen security.

He disclosed that two senior police officers had been deployed to Ede, including Gabriel Eliagu and Raymond Egbe, whom he described as an officer attached to INEC-related duties in Abuja.

According to him, their deployment was intended to strengthen security in Ede, which he identified as one of the volatile areas in the state.

“Can that kind of person working with INEC compromise?” he asked, while defending the deployment of senior officers to the area.

The commissioner also spoke on allegations of vote buying during the election. When informed that reports of money allegedly being distributed at a polling unit in Ejigbo had emerged, he said he would verify the information with the police leadership in the area.

Earlier, Governor Adeleke, shortly after casting his ballot, expressed confidence in his chances of winning the election.

The governor urged voters to turn out in large numbers, exercise their franchise and protect their votes throughout the electoral process.

Adeleke said the election offered the people of Osun an opportunity to determine who would govern the state for the next four years.

He also appealed to voters to remain peaceful and law-abiding during voting and the subsequent collation of results, urging them to remain at their polling units to monitor the process in line with INEC guidelines.

The governor, however, alleged that he had received information about a police officer planning to disrupt the election in Ede and called on the Inspector-General of Police to remove the officer from the state.

“We also received information about our supporters being scared away in Modakeke and some areas in the state by some police officers to disenfranchise them,” Adeleke said.

He further warned his supporters to be vigilant against the alleged circulation of fake ballot papers, which he said could be used to mislead voters at some polling units.

Former military Head of State, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, popularly known as IBB, has said wealthy civilians have historically helped support and fund military coups in Nigeria.


IBB made the assertion in an interview on Badeggi 90.1 FM in Minna, Niger State, as part of events to celebrate his 85th birthday.

He said: “No successful coup in Nigeria’s history has ever happened without the involvement of civilians.”


The former military leader also talked about the events around the 1985 plan to remove his government and the later killing of Mamman Vatsa, who was the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, at that time.

IBB noted that Vatsa, who he described as a schoolmate and someone he was close to, first said he was not part of the plan.


He said at first he couldn’t believe the accusations connecting Vatsa to the plan because they had been friends for a long time.

IBB explained that he called Vatsa and Mohammed Gado Nasko into his office because a high-ranking military officer told him that the two men were linked to the plot.

“When they arrived, I asked them about the reports that they had been mentioned in a plot to topple my government. Both of them denied any involvement.


“While General Gado Nasko was cleared of any wrongdoing, the panel found evidence linking Vatsa to the coup plot,” IBB said.

He said he was “shocked, devastated and deeply disappointed” when Vatsa’s alleged involvement was established.

“There was nothing I could do to exonerate him from the consequences prescribed by military law. My hands were tied. That was how I lost my brother, General Mamman Vatsa,” he added.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has renewed its demand for the payment of withheld salaries and the resolution of other outstanding welfare issues affecting university lecturers, warning that the Federal Government must address the grievances to ensure stability in Nigeria’s public universities.

ASUU President, Prof. Christopher Piwuna, stated this on Friday while briefing journalists at the ASUU Secretariat of the University of Jos in Plateau State.

Piwuna said the government must urgently address all outstanding issues of academic staff welfare and matters arising from the Federal Government of Nigeria-ASUU Agreement of December 2025.

He said the resolution of the issues was critical to restoring confidence among university lecturers and creating the conditions necessary for effective teaching, research and learning in the nation’s public universities.

The ASUU president also used the briefing to raise broader concerns about Nigeria’s socio-economic situation, calling for a fundamental shift in government policies ahead of the 2027 general elections.

He said political parties and candidates must make the welfare of Nigerians, job creation, poverty reduction, education and economic development central to their programmes, rather than rely on policies that provide temporary relief without addressing the structural causes of hardship.

Piwuna particularly criticised what he described as IMF and World Bank-dictated “poverty alleviation” policies, saying such approaches should give way to more participatory and inclusive programmes designed around Nigeria’s peculiar realities.

According to him, Federal and sub-national governments must prioritise agricultural and industrial production, social protection and other productive sectors capable of creating jobs and reducing dependency.

He said government should also suspend unnecessary borrowing and explore sustainable alternative sources of financing development projects that have direct relevance to the lives and livelihoods of Nigerians.

The ASUU president called for stronger measures to tackle corruption and financial leakages, including the recovery of stolen public resources and improved accountability in the management of public funds.

He also advocated a tax system that places a greater burden on the wealthy, arguing that the rich should contribute more towards financing development and improving the living conditions of poorer Nigerians.

“As an underdeveloped country yearning for rapid development, it’s the rich that must be taxed to give the poor a life worth living,” Piwuna said


On education, the ASUU president called for a comprehensive review of Nigeria’s education system to make it responsive to the country’s socio-economic, cultural, technological and developmental realities.

He said Nigeria should move away from simply replicating educational models developed for other societies and instead develop a system that addresses its own peculiar challenges and development needs.

Piwuna called for greater attention to research, technical education, agriculture, innovation and skills development, stressing that these were essential to producing the manpower required to drive Nigeria’s development.

He said properly funded research and technical education would also help reduce unemployment by equipping young Nigerians with relevant skills and creating pathways into productive sectors of the economy.

The union further urged the Federal and State Governments to address the infrastructure and funding challenges confronting public universities, saying sustainable investment was required to reverse the decline in the quality of higher education.

Piwuna stressed that the welfare of academic staff must remain central to any meaningful reform of the university system, noting that lecturers cannot effectively deliver on their responsibilities in an environment where agreed conditions of service remain unresolved.

He said the implementation of outstanding aspects of the December 2025 FGN-ASUU Agreement would go a long way towards restoring industrial harmony and enabling university lecturers to focus on teaching, research and community service.

The ASUU president maintained that the challenges confronting universities could not be separated from the wider economic difficulties facing the country.

He therefore called on governments at the Federal, State and Local Government levels to redirect their socio-economic policies and projects towards the people, whom they hold public resources in trust for.

With the 2027 elections approaching, ASUU said Nigerians should critically assess the policies and programmes being offered by political parties and candidates, particularly their plans for education, employment, poverty reduction, production and social protection.

The union insisted that Nigeria requires policies capable of transforming its productive capacity and reducing dependence, rather than measures that merely manage the symptoms of poverty.

Piwuna said ASUU remained committed to engaging government and other stakeholders towards finding lasting solutions to the challenges confronting Nigeria’s university system and the wider society.