Tunde Sanni
13 July 2008
Lagos — Recent allegations and counter allegations of assassination in Oyo State have redefined the face of the politics, putting to test the police's ability to provide security without bias.
By the time he assumed duty as the new Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, Mr. Bashiru Azeez would have heaved a sigh of relief. This is because his deployment came after the death of the strongman of Ibadan politics, Chief Lamidi Adedibu. Shortly before his arrival, the Police had attempted to rid the state capital of suspected political thugs who could have been used by over zealous politicians to heat-up the polity and put the police on the edge.
The deployment of the police chief, who is also an indigene of the state, hails from Fiditi in Afijio local government area of the state, had been mired in controversy immediately he arrived. The whole state was awash with speculations that he had been a close friend of the state governor, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala in his days in the force. Akala, according to the speculation, was instrumental to the deployment of the police chief, who is due for retirement soon, to the state.
A quiet police officer, he might not have bargained for the early 'reception' his command has been receiving from politicians in the state with just a fortnight on the seat.
Thrice within one week, politicians in the state had in reminiscences of elites' grudges and shadow fighting, raised assassination alarms on their personalities. The alarms have rekindled the tag on the state as the epicenter of Wild, Wild West.
The state before now had a history of the police offering cover to assailants, while their victims are left unprotected. For instance, Femi Davies is still counting his losses from the destruction visited on his Pelly Foam business premises along Dugbe Alawo area of Ibadan by the Adedibu machine ably supervised by the terror king himself. Pelly, who seemed to be making steady progress in his business without caring to pay obeisance to the patriarch of Molete political dynasty, became a victim just because he came into the state through a perceived enemy of Adedibu, Senator Rashidi Ladoja. Also, the Iyalode of Ibadan, Chief {Mrs.} Aminat Abiodun is just recovering from the attack on her sprawling shopping estate at the New Gbagi Market.
In the same vein, former governor Ladoja is not insulated from the police action. Last year, his residence was attacked by an alleged killer gang who missed their target, but left a tale of woes. Even the meaning of the substance believed to be human blood splattered on the ground at the Ondo Road residence of Ladoja up to Osuntokun junction in Bodija, and which the Police sent for forensic analysis in Lagos, is till now yet to be made public. The command grudgingly agreed to take the blood sample to Lagos after the public had faulted the initial police position that the blood sample was that of an animal. In all these, none of the suspects has been arrested or prosecuted despite finger-pointing at the culprits.
The case of Olawale Oladoja, a former Director of O'dua conglomerate is still fresh. Having fallen victim to the Adedibu power merchants, with the scar of the thugs on him, and despite being the complainant in a case of alleged car theft, he was dragged to the court and is still being prosecuted. This is notwithstanding the recovery of the vehicle which the thugs forcefully took from him and which was discovered and later retrieved at the sprawling residence of Adedibu. It took the royal bluntness of the monarch, Oba Samuel Odulana for some sanity to return to the state capital. Since then, the terror gang has been unemployed.
However, the All Nigeria Peoples Party {ANPP} gubernatorial candidate at the April 2007 election in the state, Senator Abiola Ajimobi was the first person to fire the first shot of alleged assassination plot against his life. He was seconded by a member of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Tunde Jinadu. The last set of allegation came from three aides of Akala, viz: the Secretary to the State Government, {SSG}, Chief Olayiwola Olakojo, the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Michael Folorunsho Lana and Kola Balogun, Commissioner for Commerce in the state.
Olakojo was one of the persons indicted by the five-man administrative panel set up by the government of Ladoja. The panel also indicted the incumbent governor and Balogun who was the Commissioner for Works in the purported 11-month administration of Alao-Akala. Balogun and his wife were indicted by the Independent and Corrupt Practises Commission and Other Related Offences Commission {ICPC.
At the center of the assassination alarms are four possible issues which include the subsisting appeal contesting the election and judicial victory of Alao-Akala before the Court of Appeal, the carryover of the bitter rivalry between Ladoja and the governor in the immediate past administration in the state and the gradual return of the former governor to the Peoples Democratic Party {PDP}, as being facilitated by the Reconciliation Committee of the party as well as the intra-party crisis in the ANPP.
The accusations and counter accusations could have only been an issue because Adedibu is no more. Otherwise, scores could have been settled using his terror gang. Both Ajimobi and Jinadu belong to the ANPP while all the aides of Akala-Akala were there in the purported 11 months administration of the governor. They have played some roles in his government. It is no doubt a trying moment for the police.
The ANPP chief had penultimate Friday alerted the police through a petition he addressed to the COMPOL about an alleged plot being hatched by the state government to eliminate him. He said "an anonymous caller who claimed to be a member of the group being co-ordinated by a high ranking official of the state government has been instructed to eliminate me during the absence of the state governor, Otunba Alao-Akala who is planning to travel overseas in the next few days.
He said:"I am to be eliminated because of my case at the Court of Appeal challenging the election of Otunba Alao-Akala as the state governor. As a peace loving man who abhors raising false alarm, I would ordinarily have ignored this information, but for the seriousness of the allegation and the fact that there had been political assassinations in the state in the recent past."
He dismissed insinuations that his alarm was meant to heat up the polity, arguing that he had not been in the habit of making noise when nothing exists. "When anybody raises an alarm, look at his character and track records. Ordinarily, one should not have cared but we've had many like that which we had ignored. It is better to be on the side of care, caution than to keep silent, maintaining that the recent threat on his life confirmed his position that the late strongman of Ibadan politics was not alone in the acts of formenting crises in the state.
The alarm might have been informed by some strange movements which he claimed to have been noticing around his house about two days to that time, but affirmed that he would put his trust in God who is the highest shield and protector of humanity.
Instructively, by the time he raised the alarm, the governor, according to the Special Adviser on Public Communications in the state, Dotun Oyelade was away to the United Kingdom for his daughter's graduation. He however dismissed the ANPP chieftain's allegations as a very unfortunate statement coming from the person "we viewed with a modicum of decency and responsibility."
The police in responding to the challenges of the alarm from Ajimobi and rebuttal from Oyelade interrogated Olakojo and the media aide.
But barely 24 hours after the alarm of the ANPP gubernatorial candidate at the last year election, Jinadu raised a similar alarm with an addition that he narrowly escaped attacks from assailants who stormed his Mokola residence while he was away on a spiritual vigil. The assailants according to him, injured his mother, Mrs. Susan Boade whom was at home at the wee hours the alleged killers struck and made away with his N2million constituency project money kept inside the house.
As the police tried to come to terms with the Ajimobi and Jinadu alarms, the trio of Olakojo, Lana and Balogun joined the queue. They alleged similar assassination attempts on their lives. Ironically, they fingered Ajimobi and Ladoja as the principal suspects and urged the police to investigate the matter while they demanded for police protection. But Ajimobi said that the alarm of the government officials lacked commonsense.
"It is an infantile and mediocre way of reacting to my serious allegation. By this, people can see their level of thinking. We leave everything to the court of public opinion, the police and God".
The police might have stepped up investigation into the tripple allegations but political observers predict tougher days ahead. The political logjam can only be broken by the Court of Appeal, which is expected to determine Ajimobi's appeal against the judicial victory of Akala.
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