Following renewed onslaught on its members by the men
of the Ondo State police Command, the State chapter of
the Labor Party has appealed to the Police highest
command to prevail on the Ondo State Police
Commissioner, Mr. Innocent Iluzuoke and his men to be
fair to all parties in the State in the discharged of
their duties.
In a petition addressed to the Assistant Inspector
General of Police, Zone 8, Osogbo, Mr. Sylvester Araba
entitled: “ONDO STATE POLICE COMMAND AND US, A CALL
FOR FAIRPLAY” and signed by the State Chairman of the
Party, Dr. Olaiya Oni, LP catalogued all the woes that
had been visited on its members by the police in the
State in the past two weeks while accusing the police
of bias, called for the intervention of the police
hierarchy to restore sanity in the overall image of
the Nigerian Police Force.
Below is the full length of the Letter to the AIG for
you to use as you wish.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8th June, 2007 .
The Assistant Inspector General of Police,
AIG’s Office,
Osogbo,
Osun State .
ONDO STATE POLICE COMMAND AND US, A CALL FOR FAIRPLAY
We write to intimate you with happenings in the past
few days in Ondo State as it affects men of the Ondo
State Police Command and our Party, the Labor Party
(LP).
On Wednesday evening last week (May 30th), The chief
Security Officer (CSO) to the State Governor, Mr.
Tunde Awanebi was shot dead by yet-to-be identified
assassins. Before investigations by police could
commence, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in
the state addressed a press Conference in which they
accused our party of killing the CSO. Expectedly, we
denied this spurious allegation and in the course of
this, we raised several salient posers which we asked
the police to investigate namely: that the late CSO
was reported to have been sacked earlier that day
before he was shot dead; that he was, according to his
wife, Mrs. Edith Awanebi, called on phone from his
personal home to the Government House at about 7.00p.m
that evening; that he left the Government House to the
scene of his death; that he was reported to have
received a called from the driver of the Chief of
Staff (COS) Mr. Femi Agagu, who is the younger
brother of the governor, Dr. Olusegun Agagu before
his demise. This came to light when sympathizers
dialed the phone number, which the deceased received
last before he was killed.
By Friday, Mr. Femi Agagu (COS) granted an interview
to The Nation newspaper (The Nation, Saturday June 2,
pages 2 and 3) in which he directed the police to quiz
Labor party leaders over the murder of Mr. Awanebi.
We responded by querying whether Mr. Agagu can give
directives to the police or act as its spokesman. But
despite this, the Commissioner of police, Mr. Innocent
Ilozuoke, by Monday asked his subordinates to invite
Labor Party leaders to his office for interrogation.
Unfortunately enough, no member of PDP, which first
accused us, was invited. Also, the COS to the
Governor was never quizzed. The police in Ondo state
appear to have been compromised as we have had cause
in the past before - during and after the April 2007
elections – to complain.
Again on Thursday (June 7th) men of the Ondo State
Police Command got itself involved in another of its
now familiar compromising stance by allowing
themselves to be used to thwart the course of law! Led
by Mr. Yemi Alao, the Commissioner for Justice and
Attorney-General of Ondo State, Mr. Michael Bodunde,
the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of
operations (AC-Operations) stormed the venue of the
on-going verification exercise of INEC documents by
Legal Team of the Labor Party.
In a Commando-like manner, the police sent everybody
parking including, all INEC staff who scampered for
safety. In the process, Mr. Yemi Alao ordered the
police to seize all equipments being used by the
Labor Party Legal Team for the exercise and even
placed some Labour Party members under temporary
arrest and made them to write statements before they
were released.
The Attorney General and justice Commissioner, Mr.
Yemi Alao is a PDP leader, a party whose election at
the April polls is being contested by all the
political parties in Ondo state, including our party,
the Labor Party.
That Police Command, represented by whole Assistant
Commissioner of police could allow itself to be
involved in such a compromising act is, to say the
least, lamentable and a breach of the law he swore to
protect. Our party was duly given permission in form
of court order to inspect all documents at the Ondo
State INEC headquarters. I hereby attach that court
order with this letter. So Mr. Bodunde’s action in
aborting the exercise under the directive of an
officer of a party (Mr. Yemi Alao) whose victory at
the poll in question is being contested is a travesty
of the law and is highly unacceptable.
The Labor Party has undergone what can be described
as a ‘century of wrongs’ in the hands of the Ondo
State Police Command acting at the behest of the PDP
government of Dr. Agagu. It is time you called a halt
in the interest of this state and the image of the
police.
Signed
Dr. Olaiya Oni
Chairman
CC: Commissioner of Police, Ondo State.
Director, SSS, Ondo State.
O.C. CIB, Ondo State.