Oloniniran, who was on election duty was taking snapshots of a scene where policemen were arresting some youths at a polling unit when the operative swooped on him.

Without listening to him, the operatives attached to the Swift Operation Squad seized his phone, assaulted him and bundled him into their van.

The yet-to-be-identified policeman pointed a gun at Oloniniran, who immediately obeyed the law of gravity by lying down.

He was beaten while in the van even as they deleted several pictures he had previously taken, including those taken while he was being arrested.

“Why are you capturing us? Who are you? What do you want to do? Come here, go inside the vehicle,” the policemen were heard saying.

He was, however, released at the Rivers State University, Junction in Port Harcourt after the matter was reported to the Rivers state Police Command spokesperson, Grace Iringe-Koko.

Speaking with our correspondent after his release, Oloniniran said he was brutalised by police officers at a polling unit close to where the incumbent governor of the state, Nyesom Wike, voted earlier.

The journalist said he was arrested for recording the moment some police officers were harassing a male voter at the polling unit.

Oloniniran said, “Yes, I was arrested earlier by the police, but I’ve now been released.

“I was arrested and brutalised by the police officers because I tried to take pictures of the moment they were assaulting a male voter at a polling unit close to Governor Wike’s polling unit at Wimpey Junction, Rumuepirikom, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.”