- Says Ajaka and supporters attacked Gov. Bello’s convoy on June 3.
The Police Command in Kogi has dismissed allegations by Social Democratic Party (SDP) of planned attack on its governorship candidate, Alhaji Murtala Ajaka and supporters in Kogi local government area of the state.
The command’s Public Relation Officer, SP Williams Ovye-Aya in a statement in Lokoja on Monday, described the allegation against its Commissioner of Police, Onuoha Bethrand as “self-serving and emblematic of desperation, vindictiveness, a propensity for destructiveness and to salivate the insidious and vaulting political ambition of a psychopath.”
Adejoh-Audu, Director Communications to Murtala Ajaka’s Gubernatorial Campaign Organization, had in a statement accused the state CP, in cahoots with Gov. Yahaya Bello, of planning to attack his principal and SDP supporters in Kogi LGA.
He called on the Inspector General of Police to call the CP to order and to compel him to give adequate protection to Ajaka and all SDP supporters in Kogi.
But Ovye-Aya said the allegations by Adejoh-Audu that there was a purported planned attack by the commissioner of police on Ajaka’s supporters in Kogi local government area was totally false.
“The Command wishes to emphatically and categorically state that, the statement is not only the figment of the imagination of Faruk Adejoh-Audu and his political candidate, Yakubu Ajaka who has mastered the art of political gimmickry and brigandage, but totally false, malicious, pretentious, and highly mischievous.
“The Commissioner of Police who upon assumption of duty one month ago has so far demonstrated a high level of professionalism by providing a level playing ground for all political parties and their candidates to operate in the State should not be dragged into politics.
“In a democracy, freedom of expression is a right, but it must be accompanied by responsibility, not to hide under its guise to spin out lies, falsehood, innuendos and sensationalism. It shows the writer and his sponsors have no decorum, decency, intellect, and are oblivious of the legal consequences of deformation and assassination of character,” the statement said.
The police command said it was still investigation the attack on Governor Yahaya Bello’s convoy.
“It would be recalled that, on 3rd June, 2023 along Abuja-Lokoja road, the SDP candidate Murtala Yakubu Ajaka and his supporters blocked and attacked the convoy of the Executive Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello at Banda some kilometers away from Lokoja. During the attack, some of the Governor’s aides sustained varying degrees of injuries.
“All efforts, invitations and entreaties to come and give his own side of the incident has come to nought. Yet he has been moving around the nooks and crannies of the state without any molestation even when he has no immunity. The case is still under investigation.”
Aya urged the SDP candidate and his campaign organization to leave the Police alone and “focus on issues-based campaigns and soliciting for support from the electorate instead of resorting to cheap blackmail, bullying and arm-twisting for political sympathy from the public who already know their tricks, gimmicks and antecedents”.
He called on the politically sophisticated citizens of Kogi state to disregard and discountenance such mischievous and malicious information, and to be wary of being hoodwinked by merchants of violence.
