Threats to life : Buruji writes IGP
1st February, 2017
The Inspector-General of Police
Nigeria Police Force
Force Headquarters
Louis Edet House,
Abuja
Dear Sir,
RE: ALLEGED THREAT TO LIVES AND PLOT TO ELIMINATE SOME LAWYERS IN OGUN STATE
My attention has been drawn to a publication by Premium Times, an online medium on the 1st of February, 2017 wherein I was accused of alleged threat to lives and attempted murder.
According to the report, the petition dated 30th January, 2017, which was addressed to the Commissioner of Police, Ogun State Police Command, and copied to your office, the Senate President, Chief Judge of Ogun State, Director of State Security Service and Director-General of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), was written by Edwards Group Chambers. And it was said to have been signed by one Kayode Akinsola.
The report further stated that the petitioners alleged that I had contracted suspected hired killers to eliminate them for being counsel to the defendant in a libel case I instituted against their client, Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu.
The petitioners claimed that after the court proceedings on the 25th of January, 2017, suspected thugs whom they said I brought to the court, pursued them and fire gunshots at their vehicles.
Curiously, the same people, who alleged that gunshots were fired at their vehicles, contradicted themselves when they wrote, “Suffice it to say that the aftermath of the close of proceedings of 25th January, 2017 witnessed an ugly situation where thugs of the popular politician ran after our vehicles and shot to the air somewhere before getting to Kuto, Abeokuta, Ogun State, forcing us to scamper into safety and narrowly escaped being killed.”
While I completely deny all their allegations as untrue, mere fabrications and an afterthought, I make haste to point out some inconsistencies when they claimed that the “suspected thugs” fired gunshots at their vehicles in one paragraph and thereafter said “they ran after our vehicles and shot to the air”. Which one do we believe? That they shot at their vehicles or into the air? Where are the vehicles that were shot at? Why were the pictures not taken and attached to the petition?
It should also be noted that whereas the court sat on the 25th of January, 2017, the petition alleging the wild allegations against me was dated 30th January, 2017 – five clear days after the court proceedings. If any of such incident took place, which nearby Police Station did they report it?
The truth of the matter is that although the petitioners are lawyers, they belong to the rival group within the Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which is being promoted by Hon. Adebutu, Edwards Ayo-Odugbesan and one Yemi Oke, with the active support of ex-Governor Gbenga Daniel.
The libel suit I filed at the Ogun State High Court 5, Isabo, Abeokuta, is against one of them – Hon. Adebutu – while Ayo-Odugbesan and Yemi Oke act for their group as their lawyers.
In the build up to the 2015 general election, Ayo-Odugbesan approached me to help him prevail on the State Executive Committee of the party to give him an automatic ticket for the election. He came severally to my Ijebu-Igbo country home for this purpose. He wanted to go to the State House of Assembly.
However, I told him that I did not have such powers since I was not a member of the State Executive Committee of the party; more so, I was an aspirant like him.
Later on, Ayo-Odugbesan obtained the nomination form, contested and lost woefully at the primary. He has not forgiven me because of my inability to get him the automatic ticket as he wanted.
Since then, he has been looking for ways to get at me and destroy me alongside Hon. Adebutu who is blinded by his ambition to contest for the office of the governor of Ogun State in 2019.
That is why Hon. Adebutu, Ayo-Edwards, Oke and Daniel created a parallel PDP structure to fight the authentic party structure that I belong to.
I do not have thugs. I have never used thugs for any reason whatsoever. I have never been involved in violence of any sort since I joined politics. I am a man of peace and a law-abiding citizen. The various security reports on my activities would attest to this.
I was escorted to the court by policemen and I left the court with them peacefully, in the company of my lawyers. I had a brief stopover at the PDP State Secretariat and then left for Lagos.
In fact, Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s convoy met and drove past us at the same Kuto roundabout and later on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on our way to Lagos. If there was any threat to peace, the Governor would have been the one to raise the alarm.
On what transpired in court during the proceedings, I wish to state that in spite of his adversarial posture, I maintained the highest level of self-restraint and decorum even as I answered all his questions to the best of my ability and knowledge.
At the end of the day, the court admitted all the evidence I tendered while it rejected one of his and accepted another. Indeed, I have been reliably informed that in yet another panicky move, the Adebutu-Ayo Odugbesan team has filed a Notice of Appeal against some of the decisions of the court that they considered unfavourable to their case.
So, the allegation that a so-called rigorous cross-examination infuriated my supporters and I fall flat in the face of obvious and verifiable facts, as the records of the courts would show.
Once again, I deny in its entirety all the allegations contained in petition and I wish to urge you to use your good offices to compel them to substantiate their allegations. Should they fail to do this, they should be charged for giving the Police false information and/or making false allegations.
Yours faithfully,
Senator Buruji Kashamu
Cc:
The President of the Senate
National Assembly Complex,
Abuja.
The Director-General
Department of State Service
Yellow House,
Aso Villa, Abuja.
The Commissioner of Police
Ogun State Police Command
Eleweran-Abeokuta.
The Director
State Security Service (SSS)
Abeokuta,
Ogun State.
The Chief Judge
Ogun State High Court
Isabo-Abeokuta
The Presiding Judge
Court 5
Ogun State High Court
Isabo – Abeokuta
The Director-General
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA)
Edward Group of Chambers,
Discovery Gardens, Isheri River – View Estate,
Near OPIC / Compass / Rainbow 94.1),
Isheri, Ogun State.
