By Abdullahi Issa
A group of elites and elders under the umbrella of the Liberation Group (LG), led by Dr. Amuda Aluko has pledged support to the federal government and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris over the transfer of high profile suspects from the state police command, Ilorin to Abuja force headquarters.
The group in two separate press conferences in Abuja and Ilorin insisted that the police hierarchy acted within the ambit of law and historical precedence.
According to LG, “Controversies ensued after Senate President, Bukola Saraki, at the instigation of Kwara State governor, Abdulfatai Ahmed raised alarm after police hierarchy in Abuja transferred Saliu Lanre, son of a traditional chief and ex police command spokesman, Saliu Woru, Bolaji Ojulari, and three other suspects to Abuja for further investigation bordering political assassination, thuggery and cultism related activities in Kwara. Saraki and Ahmed alleged that the transfer was explicitly meant to force the suspects to name them as their sponsors all in the bid to further intimidate political opposition in the country.”
Dr. Aluko stated that Saraki and the state governor had no reasons to nurse fears if their consciences were clean on the matter.
“The police action in the matter is within the ambit of the law. There are enough precedence to show that Saraki, as former governor also enjoyed such processes where suspects were transferred to Abuja so as to enjoy uninhibited investigation.
“We wish to to make it clear to the public that the police have not in any way transgressed the limit of their power by the transfer of arrested cultists to the force headquarters in Abuja.
“Similar transfers have occurred in the past to many cases which included among others, the Oro-Ago Fulani-Farmers’ friends, Share\Tsaragi crisis, Alapa crises and the recent robbery attack on Offa, to mention just a few,” LG stated.
A former commissioner under Mohammed Lawal, Alhaji Isah Malete recalled that in 2003 when Saraki was governor, “All the former governors that served under Lawal were arrested in one fell swoop by police. Rather than have us investigated in Ilorin, we were herded together and transferred to Abuja for thorough investigation because Saraki believed that the local police command could be compromised. So why is he afraid now after some cultists were taken to Abuja.”
Dr. Aluko stressed that the recent controversy over the transfer of suspect to Abuja was inevitable.
“It is important to stress that we are witnessing the culmination of a buildup of several losses of lives and properties in Kwara since 2003. The public have been made to believe that the perpetrators of the criminal activities were from outside the state. Without prejudice to local security Authority, countless letters, open press briefings, paper advertisements have been done by the progressives in Kwara to sensitise government at all levels on the trouble in the state,” he said.
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