Aregbesola's loyalists cry out over 'police bias' in Osun, call for removal of CP

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the group, loyal to the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, carried placards with different inscription asking for the removal of the police commissioner.

Some of the placards read: “CP, Stop being Gov. Oyetola’s stooge’’, “Freedom of Association is not a crime’’, “Osun Police, stop being biased’’, “IGP call Osun Police to order’’.

The factional group is also known as “The Osun Progressives (TOP).

NAN further reports that the protesters went to the Police Command’s headquarters in Osogbo in buses and on motorcycles with their placards to press home their demands.

Addressing newsmen at the police command’s headquarters, the factional chairman, Mr Rasak Saninsile, said the protest became necessary after his group studied the police commissioner’s disposition to political issues in the state.

Saninsile, said that the Command’s position on the attack on the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, as contained in its statement on Feb. 15, was absurd and unbelievable.

“It is sad that the Command has taken its bias to the deepest level of calling a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria some absurd names.

“It is heart wrenching that the Command has caved in totally to lucre-based influence and shown unbridled loyalty by the content of its press statement.

“It is also a sad tale that the Command, without any of its men in the minister’s motorcade, concluded that the minister brought in hoodlums to disturb the peace of the state,’’ he said.

Reacting to the allegations, DCP Valentine Kanayo told the protesters that the allegations made were untrue, but promised that the protesters’ demand would be examined.

Kanayo appealed to the protesters to go about their normal business and urged them not to take laws into their hands, adding that justice would take its course.