The Oyo state Police Command, under successive, Commssioners
of Police, is determined to shield some of its personnel, who have for
long worked hand-in-gloves with some members of the public to
intimidate, threaten, attack, blackmail and terrorize the
Editor-In-Chief of The New Federation(news.emyspot.com)/
The officers and men attached to the Iyaganku Area Command
and the Felele Police station, have always acted by proxy
using residents of Olorunsogo, Molete, who remain solidly behind their
actions.
On two occasions, one of which was on Sunday, 25 May, 2008,
Mrs. Koloko in connivance with the then Divisional Crime Officer(DCO)
the Challenge Police station, Orita Challenge, facilitated the arrest of
the journalist. While in the office of the DCO, the journalist was
repeatedly threatened.
In another plot against the journalist,a letter titled” A
Petition Against Solomon Adewumi” and dated 20 November, 2008, was
received by the Assistant Commissioner of Police(ACP), Iyaganku Area
Command, Mrs. Abiodun Ige on 30 April, 2009.
On Saturday 9 May, 2009, Mrs. Ige ordered the arrest of
Adewunmi on trumped up charges,through one Simon and four other heavily
armed policemen from the same command. During the detention of the
journalist for eight hours, the policemen repeatedly provided situation
report to Mrs. Koloko through the phone.
Curiously, one Chukuwuma Joseph, Bola Adeniran and Mrs. Taiwo
Owoeye, a pastor’s wife, who Adewunmi had reported a case of malicious
damage against in August, 2008 at the Felele Police station, were now
used as witnesses in the case generated by the Police.
Even though the worried journalist informed the then
Commissioner of Police, Baba Adisa Bolanta, about this development
through a letter titled”Attempts To Pervert Justice” and dated 11 May,
2009, and even made verbal protests, the police response was nonchalant.
Indeed, the letter was referred to the Provost Marshall’s
office at the state police command, under the headship of a Deputy
Superintendent of Police, Oseni and one Sergeant I.Oladejo was assigned
to handle it. Surprisingly, both opted to cultivate a mutually
beneficial relationship with those the letter was written against.
Now desperate to pervert justice, the police moved the duo
out of reach, while Joseph Ale, another policeman attached to the Felele
Police Station, who midwifed the forceful entry into an apartment in
the journalist’s residence, was subtly given the go ahead to instigate
Chukuma Joseph and four others against the journalist. Joseph Ale was
the Investigating Police Officer(IPO) in a case of malicious damage
reported by Adewunmi, in August, 2008.
Not done with their sinister plot, on Sunday 9 August, 2009,
the police influenced a false report of threat to life by one Mrs.
Olawoyin against the journalist at the Felele Police station. One
Kehinde was assigned the case to investigate, but she compromised her
position as a police rank and file. Mrs. Olawoyin’s husband, a
cooperative officer with the Oyo state Ministry of Trade, Investment and
Cooperatives, conspired with, a carpenter, Ale and some other policemen
to forcefully gain entry into an apartment in Adewunmi’s residence,
while he was being interrogated at the Iyaganku Area command.
Although this was brought to the notice of the police, the
headship of the Felele Police station decided to look the other way. The
Edo born Divisional Police Officer (DPO) had always displayed signs of
bias in handling cases brought before him concerning the journalist.
Interestingly, the DPO has always maintained a symbiotic relationship
with all those against the journalist.
In order to actualize a well scripted plot, the journalist
was detained from 4.00pm in the evening to 9.30pm in the night, with
plans to put him in the cell till the next day. This was, however
thwarted by the then Police Public Relations Officer(PPRO), Bisi
Okwuobi, who called the DPO to justify his action.
Although the journalist informed the Commissioner of Police
of the incident in a letter dated 31 August, 2009 and titled ”Denial Of
Justice”, and even met on two separate occasions with the Police Boss,
mum was the word from the police.
Greatly disturbed by the attitude of the Oyo state Police
Command, the journalist wrote a letter to the Assistant Inspector
General of Police, zone11, Osogbo, Osun state, Yesufu Mohammed, titled
”INJUSTICE” and dated 3 December, 2009. After the IPO in charge of the
case, one Inspector Odelade, took the statement of the journalist,
various excuses characterized his subsequent reactions.
Again on Saturday 14, August, 2010, the same Chukwuma Joseph
and his wife, Blessing, in connivance with some night guards in the
Olorunsogo, Molete area, brought false allegations against the
journalist, physically assaulted him and forcefully gained entrance into
his apartment. Forty thousand naira cash and a number of his personal
belongings were stolen. After which a report was made at the Felele
Police station.
The same Joseph Ale, who has always played a role in the
travails of Adewunmi was assigned the case. Ale took Chukwuma Joseph’s
statement and conducted a search of the journalist’s apartment alongside
the CRO of the police station. Also present were the night guards and
the coordinator of the night guards.
Surprisingly, a plain paper without the Nigeria Police Force
logo and name was presented as a search warrant. Indeed, Adewunmi’s
request to be shown a search warrant, was met with a forceful entry of
his apartment by the policemen. No search warrant was presented by the
policemen.However, nothing incriminating was found in his apartment.
Again, another search was carried out on the journalist’s
apartment, the same day, by Kehinde, another police man- Olayiwola
Ibrahim, Chukwuma Joseph, a night guard and the coordinator of the night
guards. Sadly, no search warrant was presented again, while some items
were, secretly removed from his apartment. Again, nothing incriminating
was found in the journalist’s apartment.
In quick succession, he was detained from 7.00am on that
saturday morning, 14 august, 2010, until 2.00pm on Sunday, 15 August,
2010, and hurriedly arraigned before the Iyaganku magisterate court 7 on
Monday, 16 August, 2010. With active connivance of the D.P.O OF the
Felele Police Station, Adewunmi was remanded in the Agodi prisons for
three days.
Again, he wrote a letter to the AIG, zone11 dated 23 August
2010 and titled”INJUSTICE PART 2”. In the letter, he recounted his
experience in the hands of the police at the Felele Police station.
However, the letter was referred to the Oyo state Police
Command, which in turn sent it to the Criminal Investigation
Department(CID), Iyaganku. The Investigating Police Officer, Femi
Ajibade with the assistance of the journalist invited Chukuma Joseph and
others mentioned in his petition. But curiously, after obtaining their
statements, Ajibade only searched the apartment of the principal
suspect, without visiting the scene of the incident and inviting another
principal suspect, Blessing Chukuma.
On saturday, 8 october, 2011, at about 8.45pm, one Yemi Ajala
of Kehinde Aderibigbe street, Olorunsogo, Molete, Ibadan attacked and
robbed the journalist. The journalist reported the matter at the Felele
police station the next morning. When the policewoman on duty would
record the entry, she recorded assault as against the robbery the
journalist reported. She said that the suspect’s brother, who is a
Superintendent of Police and Divisional Traffic Officer of the Police
Divisional Headquarters, Iyana Offa, was her ‘Oga’. Indeed the senior
police officer eventually showed up at the station to bail the suspect.
And eversince the authorities of the police station have refused to act
on the matter.
Most recently, a man in his mid forties, Daniel Offiong, who
rented a room in a three bedroom flat, pretended to be a taxi driver, to
get the accommodation. Although his has a golf car, painted in Oyo
state Taxi colours, he does not use it for that purpose.
For long, the man, Offiong had been living a suspicious
life, while receiving visitors, who are mostly ‘okada riders, in his
apartment. Despite the fact that the journalist intimated the Divisional
Crime Officer of the Felele Police station of the ways of the man,
other considerations beclouded his sense of reasoning. These days
Offiong and his cohorts hide motorcycles of suspicious origins in his
apartment, with the knowledge of the Police.
While the Landlady of 5 Kehinde Aderibigbe street,
Olorunsogo, Molete, has converted the journalist's residence to a
refuse and feaces dump.
Also at No. 6 of the same street, Mrs. Adesanya(Mama Tobi)
who once resided there, but now operates a grinding machine in the same
address, had on 30 December, 2015 alongside are family members at about
8.30pm in the night, attacked and robbed the journalist, on his way
into his residence.
Interestingly, about five young men who reside at No. 4 of
the same street, led by one Michael, on 21 December, 2018 at about 1.00
pm in the afternoon attacked the journalist, when he raised alarm on
sighting the contents(arms and ammunition) they were putting into the
boot of a Lexus salon car with tinted glasses. These young men have no
visible means of livelihood, just as the residents in the community
maintain criminal silence, when issues of these young men and their
likes who are very many in the community are raised.
In addition, some hoodlums led by one Lekan and Segun
Adewale of No. 8 of the same street, attacked, robbed and injured the
journalist during the same period, even as they boasted that the police
were aware of their actions.
Indeed, the Landlords and Tenants Association Iin Olorunsogo,
Molete, Ibadan, led by one Alhaji Adetayo, have for several years
played criminally suggestive roles in the Journalist’s travails.
Indeed, most house owners in the community are not
meticulous, when they want to take in tenants. This has resulted in the
high population of people with questionable character in the community.
Even, as majority of the youths have been brought up to take crime as a means to an end.
Till date, the Oyo state Police Command have devoted their energy towards ensuring that the journalist does not get justice.
The unanswered question now is, if the police is incapable of
ensuring that a law abiding citizen such as the journalist gets
justice, who does this helpless citizen turn to ?
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