Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Ngozi Onadeko, has invited a youth leader, Ganiyu Omirinde, from Ayete Community, in Ibarapa zone of the state, to come forward and prove his claims that farmers, whose land crops were destroyed by Wakili, were being detained by the police, with N50,000 demanded as bail from them.
Disclosing the police commissioner’s invitation on Saturday, March 20, 2021, the police spokesman in the state, CSP Olugbenga Fadeyi, said that the request was sequel to the command’s attention drawn to the interview published on page 3 of The Punch Newspaper on Monday March 15, 2021, in which Omirinde alleged that complainants were often detained, with N50,000 demanded as bail before their release.
The PPRO said that the youth leader claimed that the police attitude resulted in residents’ refusal to further lodge complaints on any Fulani/herders case in the Divisions in that axis.
Fadeyi added that the publication, seen as misrepresentation of facts, made the Commissioner of Police to direct that Omirinde should be invited to hear his part.
The PPRO said that “though the interview was conducted, the publication made about him in that regard was an absolute misrepresentation.
“On the strength of the above, the CP wishes to state emphatically that the publication is a misrepresented news that has no basis or backing, hence, the Command is seeking a better collaboration with the press and the general public in the propagation of accurate information.
“While the Command will continue to put in place security apparatus to further strengthen the security architecture and relative peace being enjoyed in the state, the Commissioner of Police urges all and sundry not to desist from being law abiding citizens in the state, but to constantly support the police with credible and timely information.”
He said that the best was being done in nipping crime in the bud and bringing insecurity to the barest minimum.
