Alaafin Of Oyo Accuses Police Of Aiding Crime

Oba Lamidi Adeyemi

Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi 111 has accused the state Police Command of what he described as aiding and abetting of criminality in Oyo Town. Oba Adeyemi alleged that the state police command has been providing security cover for an Oyo Chief, Alhaji Ganiyu Ajiboye, who had earlier been charged to court for an alleged criminal offence and granted bail.

Ajiboye, who was installed as Baale of Ago Oja in Oyo town by the immediate past administration of Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, and whose title, a High Court had declared as non-existent in Oyo State Chiefs Law, was recently charged in an Iyaganku Magistrate’s Court for violating a perpetual High Court order, which had restrained him from further parading himself as an oba.

While addressing the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mbu Joseph Mbu, who paid him a courtesy visit in his palace yesterday, Oba Adeyemi said the police in Oyo town had been providing security cover for Chief Ajiboye, thereby encouraging him to further commit the offence for which he was arraigned, charged and later granted bail.

He described the police action as a manifestation of ineptitude and gross violation of what they stand for, as well as an act that was capable of undermining the sincerity of the force in the enforcement of law and order, adding that indulging an accused person by the police in such an instant was a breach of the constitution. According to him, the Baale of Ago Oja ought to have been re-arrested for committing the same offence he was charged with, but instead, the police gave him cover.

He said: “How would somebody who has been charged to court for an offence and was granted bail, could now be provided police escort to commit the same offence for which he was on bail. “If the police are aiding and abetting criminality, people will not respect them. Such an action could lead to break down of law and order. We are ever ready in Oyo to give support and cooperation to the police. We maintain law and order, the reason the old Oyo Empire had existed uninterruptedly for 600 years. “Until we begin to take care of our security, and enforce the law as it should be, the nation will continue to grapple with its adversity,”

Alaafin said. Having acknowledged that he and his people constitutionally appreciated the roles and challenges being encountered by the police, Alaafin used the occasion to sympathize with the Nigeria Police for the loss of some of his men, who were felled by armed robbers’ bullets in Ogun State on Monday, stressing that “Your men are doing their best in this area.” The Police Commissioner who was accompanied by the Oyo Area Commander, Mr. Dabo (Assistant Commissioner of Police) and some other principal officers of the state police command expressed delight for the opportunity he had to visit the palace and the Oyo Empire:

“Which I had read about when I was in the Secondary School, there was no way the police could work without the palace.” Mbu solicited the support and cooperation of Alaafin in the area of information supply, adding that: “We are your children.
Whenever we make mistakes, as our father, endeavour to call your son, the Area Commander, to intimate him. If he cannot handle the situation, I will intervene, and if any of my aides misbehave, I will sanction them,” he assured (By Gbenga Adesuyi, Ibadan)