The Hon. Rasaq Salinsile faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has accused the Commissioner of Police, Mr Wale Olokode, of bias on the ongoing crisis in the party.
Olokode, according to the APC faction, has been compromised by Governor Adegboyega Oyetola who is heading the IleriOluwa faction of the party.
Addressing a press conference in Osogbo on Friday, Salinsile, the factional Chairman of the APC, called on the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, to transfer Olokode from Osun.
The press conference was held to condemn what was said to be ‘ongoing political onslaught on the APC members who are loyalists of the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and the Thursday attack on Oranmiyan building, his political office in Osogbo.
Salinsile accused Olokode of aiding series of political attacks on some of them who are members of The Osun Progressives (TOP), a caucus of the APC.
He said Osun is no longer a safe state under Olokode, saying bank robberies, ritual killings, political violence have been rearing their ugly heads since he assumed duty as the commissioner of police in the state.
According to Salinsile, Olokode has refused to act as a professional security leader because of the ‘carrot being dangled at his front by Oyetola’.
The Chairman claimed that Olokode has refused to be acting on series of petitions and security information sent to him prior to the political attacks on the Aregbesola’s loyalists.
Salinsile also claimed that the commissioner of police has not for once detailed policemen to any of the programmes held by the faction, in spite of the letters of notification and requests sent to his office.
Instead of arresting the perpetrators of the attack on APC members in his faction, Salinsile said Olokode would rather arrest innocent party leaders who are victims of the attack.
He said: “We had intelligence reports of the Gboyega Oyetola-led IleriOluwa faction’s plan to assassinate and main us, and we had promptly passed the information to the Commissioner of Police in particular and all other security agencies. But nothing was done about it till now.
“When the Chairman of SUBEB, Ajibola Famurewa publicly unveiled this atrocious plan at an event in their campaign office some days back, we wrote the Commissioner of Police, Wale Olokode, and attached the compact disc containing his vulgar and criminal statements. Other security agencies were copied too. Nothing was done to investigate the allegations.
“The perpetrators of evil have commenced the execution of their evil plans to letter as they increased the tempo of attacks on us.
“We are of the firm believe that the refusal to act on our petitions on the impending attacks by the police and other security agencies emboldened the criminally minded associates of Governor Oyetola to become vicious on their attacks on us.
“The worst is that, we are being punished by the Commissioner of Police, Wale Olokode whenever such attack happens. This evil occurrence of punishing us for offence committed against us by the police has been the order of the day.”
He added: “It is clear and certain that the Commissioner of Police has sold the police’s souls to the Oyetola government and will carry out its bidding so promptly. Olokode and his men are greatly helping the Oyetola people to maltreat, humiliate and de-humanise us.
“The question is, is Oyetola mandate about attacking, maiming and killing (if it gets to that) his party members? If that is Oyetola’s choice of mandate, is it right for Olokode to help him to achieving it while he abandons his constitutional mandate? Well, the choice is Wale Olokode’s.
“We therefore call on Olokode to ask the Inspector General of Police to post him out of Osun. We plead with the Inspector General of Police to please expeditiously transfer Olokode from Osun with immediate effect.
“Olokode, to the best of human understanding is incapable of carrying out his job IMPARTIALLY as demanded by the constitution.”
Salinsile also called for the relocation of a motor park opposite Oranmiyan building, describing it as a threat to the safety of commercial activities, the building and its occupants.
He said: “The existence of a motor park in that environment is a security threat to the safety of people, businesses and property in that area.
“We call on concerned authorities to relocate the garage there. If Oranmiyan House is easily attacked the way it was, then other businesses are vulnerable to attacks.”
