By Ayo Kehinde
Against the backdrop of the online viral video showing the Commissioner of Police in Ondo State holding the Deputy Governor hostage for three hours, allegedly on the instructions of Governor Oluwarotiumi Akeredole, the, Commissioner of Police, Bolaji Salami, the governor and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, are in a political war of words over the propriety of the drama.
While the issue was still raging, Ajayi reportedly tendered his resignation from the party on Sunday at his Ward 2, In Ese Odo Local Government Area of the state and immediately proceeded to the secretariat of the PDP in the same Ward, picked its membership card and announced his defection.
In the video, which news broke on Sunday morning, Salami seized the pilot car of the Deputy Governor, Alfred Agboola Ajayi, allegedly on the order of Akeredolu and held Agboola hostage for about fours hours at the gate of Government House, Alagbaka, Akure, the state capital on Saturday.
According its contents, CP Salami told Ajayi that he was not going to be aloud to leave Government House based his concluded plan to defect from the All Progressives Congress, APC to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP on Monday. The CP told Ajayi he had received a letter of his plan to defect to the PDP
To all these charges, Ajayi stated he bought the car with his own money and added that the Commissioner had no right to stop him in what amounted to political dabbling into a matter he ought to be apolitical.
No sooner had the news flooded the media than governor Akeredolu and the Commissioner of Police sought to explain their own side of the story. None tried to deny the contents of the video except to interpret it in their own contest.
In a Sunday statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Oluwasegun Smart Ajiboye and tiltled; Re: Ondo Deputy Governor Stopped from Leaving Government House, the governor said the story was incorrect and explained how
“The governor describes the stories as absolute falsehood intended to play victim by the principal involved.. a concocted and devious lie meant to discredit him,” he said adding that, “It should however be placed on records that it is a time-tested code in government’s business for officials to take inventory of offices and quarters before and after an official is moving in or out of office or quarters. Accordingly, the CP’s intervention which, was at the instance of an almost manipulated security apparatus at the Government House, was most desirable to restore law and order.
“It becomes particularly worrisome and suspicious when aides of the DG insisted on leaving the premises with items wrapped in unclear ownership as late as 11 pm.”
It ended by stating, “Governor Akeredolu reiterates his commitment to the rights of all, including the Deputy Governor. But he has to be firm and dispassionate in exercising the role assigned to him.
Interestingly, Nigerians on social media are asking questions. Many conclude that the CPS in his statement evaded referring directly to the Deputy Governor but his aides, who are not the subject of the viral video.
Some ask; When has the Commissioner of Police and not the Head of Service or Chief of Staff, become the one to wade into issues related to allocation and use of quarters and office for appointed or elected officials of government? Doesn’t the Deputy Governor enjoy immunity like the governor?
For the Commissioner of Police, Bolaji whose statement was signed by his Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, ASP Tee-Leo Ikoro PPRO on Sunday, there is even more yawning gaps in his statement.
According to him, “The video on social media platform of his purported confrontation with the Deputy Governor of Ondo state over the number of cars is an attempt to foment sentiment and misunderstanding in the state”
He stated, “the Police under his supervision take decisive responsibility when performing their legitimate functions as prescribe by law.”
According to him, “he only came to the scene when officers and men at the Government House could not broker peace between aides of the governor and that of the DG over the number of car the DG could drive out at the time.”
He said that his “presence at the scene as the Command’s Commissioner of Police was to calm frayed nerves. He also said “having listened to the reason for the misunderstanding, he advised both parties to come to terms, a condition that both agreed.”
He said he “has never been a politician all through his life and would not want to be dragged into politics, affirming that he is completely apolitical and as a police officer, his job is to protect the lives and property of Ondo State.”
While warning the people of the state that, “as the race to the government house draws very close, politicians with interest in the race should learn to play their game within the dictate of its laws,: he also advised, “ their followers to shun any act capable of causing chaos or lawlessness in the state.”
He concluded “ though I vowed to police Ondo state and its people with humility, I will not allow the ego and sentiment of any individual dictate what form of policing style I should use.”
The statement that the police was called in to broker peace between warring aides of the governor and those of his deputies flies in the face of reasoning, according to Nigerians trailing the developing story in the social media
For the PDP, through its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, on Sundaty, the“ Police cannot stop Imminent Mass Defection From APC”
He said, “the PDP has told the APC and Nigeria Police to stop fighting a lost battle as nothing can stop the imminent mass defection from the fizzling APC to the PDP across the country.”
In what he called the “despicable attack on the Ondo Deputy Governor, Agboola Ajayi, by the APC, using the Ondo state Commissioner of Police, Bolaji Salami,” , he said the attack “had further soured Nigerians in their irrevocable determination to abandon the sinking APC and move into the PDP.”
He called on the Inspector General of Police to “immediately insulate his officers and ranks from politics,… call on the Commissioner of Police, Bolaji Salami, yo order as his actions are capable of pitching the police against the people and cause a breakdown of law and order.”
The governorship poll in Ondo state would hold on November 26, according to the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC. Recently factions of the ruling APC, particularly the UNITY FORUM, had been at loggerheads with Governor Akeredolu over his second tenure.
With the defection of his Deputy Governor to the opposition PDP on Sunday, he has a hot intra-party crisis in his hands in the days ahead.
