Security Will Improve in Oyo, Justice Will be Served — Makinde’s CPS Assures Rahman’s Family

The Chief Press Secretary to Governor Makinde of Oyo State, Mr Taiwo Adisa has assured residents of the state that the state government is working overtime to solve the security challenges confronting the state, including a thorough investigation of the invents that led up to the mayhem at Iwo Road last week.

The media aide noted that although insecurity is a national issue and not just present in Oyo State, the governor has put in place several security measures to address the insecurity in the state and ensure the security of the lives and property of Oyo State residents

Adisa made these statements while speaking on “The Podium”, a radio programme on 32 FM 94.9. He also explained the members of the APC who criticize the governor whenever security challenges happen are playing politics with lives at stake.

He further expanded on the opposition’s penchant of criticizing the governor at every opportunity and called the criticism unfair as he believed that they would have been helpless if they faced the same issues.

He further called on the people of the state to give the governor their support and trust as he promised to prevent a reoccurrence of the Igangan attack

In his words: “The security problem is a national problem and here in Oyo State, we are also experiencing it. We have infiltrators from outside the state causing the type of crisis we had in Igangan.”

”So, the state is not in isolation in terms of insecurity in the country. When such happens, the government will want to respond. And what did the governor do? He went to Igangan to assure the people that the government will put in place local vigilantes to respond to such issues.”

“The security hurdles are not being witnessed by Oyo State alone. It is only people who want to apportion blames and dance on the grave of the dead that will say the governor is not doing this and that to fight insecurity. What can they do if they are faced with the same problems?”

“This is a national issue and we have to face our president and tell him not to abdicate his roles. He should not be telling us that governors have powers and, in reality, the constitution does not give governors such powers. Yes, on paper, there is Operation Burst but we can see that they are soldiers and Civil Defence Corps, who are also under the Commander-in-Chief.”

“So, there is a limit to which Operation Burst can get involved in certain things because we have to clear some other hurdles. But we are not giving excuses, Operation Burst was a creation of Oyo State and we are using it.”

“Amotekun is a creation of Oyo state and we are using them but there are also limitations to what Amotekun can do based on the issue of inter-agency rivalry that we faced initially. We are surmounting that challenge too and they are getting to do their job.”

He expanded on “voluntary policing” which was introduced by the Makinde-led administration to tackle the security challenge by uniting state and non-state actors together to secure Oyo State and added that the Security War Room set up by this administration was already bearing fruits in the effort to make Oyo State secure.

“You would have seen the effort made by the government to complement the security system by making sure we have local vigilantes involved in the security of the state. When anything is going to happen and the vigilantes are on ground, they will be the first point of contact and they will quickly raise the alarm.”

“The Police, Army, Amotekun will act upon the information given to them by the vigilantes and make sure that there is peace. So, that is what the governor is saying when he said he will ensure that such mayhem does not occur again because we are going to put in place some structures that will make sure that before anything happens, the intelligence network would have got wind of it and act accordingly to terminate such occurrence.”

“So, I can assure the people of Igangan and other places that there won’t be a crisis that will overwhelm Oyo State. As to the hoodlums’ clashes in Ibadan, yes, the Amotekun and other agencies have been engaging the Mogajis and other stakeholders. Like I said initially, some youths who grew up hearing of crises within the streets of Ibadan, think they should continue to manifest those crises. But then, the crisis points have been identified and they will be dealt with.”

He spoke about the recent violence in Iwo Road which led to the death of an innocent trader named Rahmon Azeez. When he was asked about a video clip that appeared to show the chairman of the Park Management System, Alhaji Lamidi Mukaila aka Auxiliary directing the violence, he reiterated Governor Seyi Makinde’s promise to thoroughly investigate the matter.

The media aide mourned the death of Rahmon Azeez, sent his family his condolences and promised that they would get justice after the conclusion of the investigation embarked on by the government and police

He also called for the people that recorded videos that day to go submit them to the police and other investigating authorities so that the videos could be forensically analyzed and used as evidence if verified.

He said: “We cannot trivialize this issue and that was why the governor had to rush there the following morning. We should not conclude until it is analysed by those who are investigating.”
“Life has been lost and we have to handle the matter carefully to be able to get justice for the family by ensuring that those who perpetrated the crime are brought to book. And this cannot be done on the basis of circumstantial evidence but based on facts.”

“Whoever has made the video should submit to the authorities. They can even go and submit to the Police right now. The Police will analyze what happened. There must be timelines to the event. I was not there when the video was taken.”

“So, I cannot tell you what happened at a particular minute. There are forensic people who will say what happened before and after; they will give us a minute-by-minute report.”

“It is when we get to that point that we will be able to know who was at fault. Nobody should apportion blame at this point,” Adisa concluded.