Osun: Civil societies task IG, DSS over Justice Oloyede’s safety
The Civil Societies Coalition for Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEO) has charged the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Directorate of State Security (DSS) to ensure the safety of Justice Folaranmi Oloyede and others who have been calling for the probe of Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration.
The group emphatically warned that if anything should happen to the serving judge or any member of CSCEO, Aregbesola and his “State Boys” should be help responsible.
According to a statement released in Osogbo on Thursday, July 30 by the group’s Directorate of Media and Research, it said the coalition was not raising a false alarm other than calling on the attention of security agencies to be alert at the dangerous trend the crisis in the state was heading to.
While charging security agencies to act fast by protecting Justice Oloyede, the group disclosed that information at its disposal showed that many other critics of Aregbesola’s government including key members of CSCEO and Osun Stakeholders (OS) have been targeted for attack.
In the statement signed by the Chairman of the coalescing organisation, Comrade Adeniyi Sulaiman, the group declared that this information was not mere allegation and that had the IG responded to its petition dated 13th July, 2015, those causing mayhem in the state would not have continued in their activities unabated.
“This is a warning that if security agents in the state maintained their current lackadaisical attitude, then more trouble is ahead for those who are not in Aregbesola’s good book.
“Reliable information gathered by our group showed that on Tuesday, July 28, when Justice Oloyede was billed to appear at the state House of Assembly Complex before the state Assembly’s panel, a group of “State Boys” and APC thugs had laid siege for her at the nearby bushes and the Legislative Quarters.
“We are not raising false alarm at all. To ensure that members of APC and other APC lawmakers are not caught in the web of the planned attack, leaders of the party and the Speaker, Hon. Najeem Salam had gone on air warning them not to be at the assembly complex that day”, he said.
According to him, if Justice Oloyede had appeared in person, the situation could have been catastrophic and many lives including those of lawyers and journalists who attended the stormy event may have been endangered.
“We sent a petition to the IG through our lawyer on the activities of APC thugs known as State Boys on the incessant attack, terrorism, disorderliness, provocation and threatening of lives of innocent citizens but till now no concrete thing is done.
“We won’t forget in a hurry Osun political crisis which led to the dastardly killing of Hon. Odunayo Olagbaju and Chief Bola Ige in 2001 and that is why our group is crying and if anything should happen to the woman judge or any member of our group, the state government should be held responsible.
“Our group listed the names of those unleashing terror in the state and our reservation about the state Commissioner of Police who has been bias and partisan in handling the situation in the state.
“We also know how the executives of the state chapter of the Police Community Relation Committee (PCRC), led by Mr. Amitolu Shittu, the Director-General of De-Raufs and Mr. Niran Ibitoye, the governor’s SSA on Works who is the PCRC’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) have been using their influence on the State Police Command to support APC hoodlums against innocent civilians in the state”, he stated.
Sulaiman explained that his group was willing to shed more light and give more information to security agents on the clandestine activities of Aregbesola’s State Boys if “we are call upon to do so”.
