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In this Interview, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, Spokesperson /Special Adviser to Governor Ademola Adeleke spoke extensively on the Amotekun Service and general security situation in Osun State in this interview on Rave FM Frank Talk.
How does the state government react to the tragedy incident in Akinlalu? What immediate action has the Governor taken to restore peace in the affected community beyond visiting the town?
Thank you very much. Let me first put some background. By the time the unfortunate incident happened, the Governor was out of the country. He went out for a brief medical check-up, so he was not in the country when it happened. But from his base in the US, he was giving directives to the Deputy Governor, to the Secretary to the State Government, to the Chief of Staff, to the relevant cabinet members, to security agencies. The next thing that was done was to ensure that a very high-power government team visited Akinlalu for an on-the-spot assessment. On that team were all the security service chiefs from the Police to the DSS and others, including the Special Adviser on Security Matters to the Governor. They went there to do an on-the-spot assessment and to meet the Kabiyesi and others. On their return, the deputy speaker, who is actually from the area representing the people, led another delegation on the directive of the governor, to go and now meet and see what can be done immediately to cushion the consequences on the victims. Apart from that, the Governor did something immediately, he publicly condemned the killings and vowed that justice would be done, and all the culprits and the suspects would be made to face the law, In fact, we issued a statement, and a State Security Council meeting was convened where all these issues, the Akinlalu, the banditry issue from Kwara and others were discussed. So, he took immediate steps even when he was not in the country.
Then, the second step the Governor took was that he cut short his medical vacation to say, “let me abandon this check-up, let me quickly go home and sort out this matter.” He arrived in the country the day before yesterday, and very early in the morning yesterday, he took off from Lagos and faced Akinlalu in the company of top government and security officials. At Akinlalu, the people understood the scenario and refused the politicisation of the unfortunate incident. The Akinlalu people rejected the politicisation of the incident by the opposition. The Governor has done what he should do as Chief Security Officer of the state namely condemning the killing, commencing reform of Amotekun, announcing that he will never interfere in the police investigation, announcing that whoever is involved in the unfortunate incident should face the wrath of the law, commiserating with the victims, promising compensation and by ensuring that police have freeway to do their job.
Let me ask you what exactly transpired, and I asked because there are some conflicting reports, and some are linking the killings to security lapses. Some say that the report that Amotekun responded to a call was not true, that it was a vengeance attack by the Amotekun. You must have had some preliminary reports on this. What happened?
When you are having an active investigation, it is unprofessional to speak about it. The commissioner of police, through the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Operations, actually gave an update yesterday at Akinlalu. He said they’ve arrested some Amotekun suspects. He said 20 were arrested already, and he said they are still trying to arrest some who are still at large. Now, as to what actually transpired, you know, normally that is the realm of the Police; they are the ones conducting the investigation. All the hearsay, rumour and facts or falsehoods that may have gotten to the public space may not be actually reliable until the police conclude their investigation and say this is what actually happened at Akinlalu. These are the suspects, and we are arraigning the suspects before the court of law. So it will be out of place for me to actually talk about it because whatever I say now, people can hold it against the government. We want the police to do their job, and the Governor has ordered that he will not interfere or intervene in the police investigation. And as a loyal servant of Mr Governor, I won’t want to talk about those details. Let the police do their job, and let the police then address the public as to what actually happened.
I totally understand that, Mallam. Then some say that this incident occurred because of Security lapses that since Security meetings does not hold periodically. That the Security Council meeting holds at the instance of the Governor, no plan to even say when the next security council meeting will happen.
That is not true. The State Security Council Meeting holds every month. And let me tell you something. When the Governor is not around, the Deputy Governor is always around, and if he is not around, there is a hierarchy and a system. So, the system runs on its own; all that needs to be done is to activate the regular running of the system. Okay, let me give you an instance. The Security Council Meeting was held on Monday. The Governor was not there; he was in the US. What is the State Security Council Meeting? We have the assemblage of all security chiefs, Police, Customs, Army, Paramilitary services, including Amotekun. It is always a confidential security meeting deliberating on security reports from across the state. The council check out security threats, ensures solutions are put in place. For example, the last security meeting dealt with the Akinlalu matter, the issue of how to stop the infiltration of bandits from Kwara, Ekiti states and other sundry issues. So it is not true that Security Council meeting has not been holding. It has been holding, and it is monthly. And again, there are many security meetings that are not for public consumption. I can tell you that between Monday, when the State Security Council meeting was held, there was another council meeting yesterday. In yesterday’s meeting, a full review was also done as to the state of security in Osun and how far the implementation of the resolution of the Monday meeting has gone.
So, if the Governor is not there, we have the Deputy Governor, and if he is also not there, you have top-ranking leaders down the line who normally ensure that things are running. The allegation of security lapses is fake news from the opposition. You know the opposition because the election is close by, has been latching on to everything they can get, and fake news has become a tool of their propaganda. But the Governor has a job to do, and the job to do is to deliver on good governance, democratic dividends to the people of Osun State who elected him and are going to re-elect him by God’s grace next year.
Alright, thank you, Mallam. I do acknowledge that there has been relative peace in Osun State for a long while, and the Nigerian Police Force has been doing a beautiful job, but then don’t you think this incident is a stain on the border security strategy of the Adeleke administration? Say, especially rural policing.
Thank you very much. Now, let me dwell on the issue of interagency partnership and synergy that you refer to. We have Amotekun across the Southwest because there was a gap in grassroots policing, and all along, the Amotekun and the Police and the DSS have been working cooperatively. There have been largely no issues. In fact, since Governor Adeleke took over, interagency harmony and synergy have become top-notch. There has not been a physical confrontation between the two services; there have been partnerships between Amotekun and other services. Amotekun down there in the grassroots, feed the police and the DSS. The partnership is there. Let us attempt this scenario. If you have an infraction at one police post, maybe in Ayedire, is that a license to now profile and condemn the whole Police Service? And again, when a Police man commits an infraction, you won’t go around to arrest the commissioner for police. Let’s say a police man shoots somebody at Ikire, and what you are doing is that you want the commissioner of police arrested, that is an abnormality. What is done is that, if there is an operative who committed an infraction, you check which town, who is on ground, who fired the shot, then you pick them, you apply the rule, the law, and charge them to court.
Mallam, maybe this is a peculiar case. There has been reports earlier of high-handedness of Amotekun operatives, that his men have been like that, maybe not all of them. There have been reports earlier that he didn’t bring them over.
If there are reports that the Amotekun has not been working in a certain way or there are errors, the question is, what is the procedure for correction? Amotekun is set up by state law, and the oversight function and provision are there. What is the oversight function? If we discover that the Police or DSS, or any other service, have committed an infraction, the law provides for oversight. Who do we complain to? Is it from the oversight in the House of Assembly, or through the Executive arm, or the office of Special Advisers on security matters? If all these oversight structure fails to take it up. Then you also have another line, a line of applying to the court for the infringement of fundamental rights, just like we have been doing to the police, DSS. Now, you go to court when the oversight function failed to curb the excesses that you refer to, then you apply to the court for action, to claim damages. These are structures in place to be accessed by all residents if Amotekun commits any infraction. You cannot because of an infraction from one area or another, decapitate the agency. If we have been doing that, we won’t have police, we won’t want DSS, we won’t have the army. Security agencies are subject to oversight and judicial regulations when they err. That is to show you that the system works if we allow it to, if people don’t politicise it. So in the case of Amotekun, if there are problems in its operation, then we apply the oversight infrastructure. We have the State Assembly, and we can raise a petition. Or we go to the Governor, or we call the SA security, who has been in the security sector for more than three or four decades, to say we have a petition.
Let me tell you, the Chairman of Amotekun is a retired AIG, top-notch retired AIG Wale Abass, former Commissioner of Police in several states. What I want to say is that there is a board of Amotekun that actually monitors the oversight activities of the commanding cadre. Our people need to understand that we need Amotekun, we need police, we need the Army and all of them. If there are issues with their operational code, we don’t have to throw away the baby with the bathwater. We should just allow the system to work. We should not say that because there is an infraction, we should now bring down the whole house.
I was going to raise that later, but since you are there, let’s just talk about it a little bit more. We are having this debate that Amotekun should be done away with. And I read the Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly in Osun calling for calm, saying we should not throw away the baby with the bathwater. But for those who say there are too many infractions that we should do away with Amotekun. What will the state government do, considering the fact that you have an architecture ready and a protocol of what should be done?
I’m happy this debate is coming up, and I want to say something about it. We all know where we are coming from, because actually, when you know where you are coming from, the decision about today is always easy to make. We all know why Amotekun came on board; we all know that the threat is even more active than before. Amotekun came up not from Osun State; it was a regional initiative. And we all know why it came up, we all know South West was under siege when Amotekun was put in place, and their main job is to ensure that they go to the grassroots, forests, to our rural areas where police and other security agencies might not be able to touch. We will admit that in the course of their duties across the southwest, Amotekun has actually performed creditably well. There is no agency without negatives or shortcomings. What leaders normally do is to correct those errors and ensure that the system now runs in line with the dictates of the law and the protections of the fundamental human rights of the citizens. Those calling to do away with Amotekun, I guess some of them are being political. Some people thought that since it is the PDP that is controlling Osun, the state should be destabilised. The opposition’s goal is to run the state into chaos and then get the president to declare a state of emergency. You know some people have an evil agenda, but in our own case, if we want to address the issue, what can we do to Amotekun or all the agencies that are having operational questions? What has been done by the police based on the infraction here and there? What the IG normally does is that when you have infractions in some areas, he sets up a small team to review the operational code and fish out where the errors are. Now, in the case of Amotekun, the same system is what the governor is doing. He is putting everything in place to correct every anomaly. The Chairman of the Amotekun board is working on a system review, operational review, then compliance mode to say okay if we have operational guidelines, why are people breaching them if there is any. Now, how do we ensure that nobody breaches the operational code of Amotekun? The board of Amotekun is already working on it, and it will provide operational review and protocol review to Mr Governor, the State Executive Council, and the House of Assembly for review. The issue of disbanding Amotekun is like forgetting where you are coming from. We need the Amotekun in our rural areas to complement the good job of the DSS, the Police, the Army and other security services. That’s why Governor Adeleke is saying, “No, I notice this error, the police should dig into it, give us a report of what happened, allow the suspect to face the law”. To say we should do away with Amotekun is from an opposition angle, and that is because they want us in chaos; they are not happy with the rapid development happening in the state.
Is that why you are refusing the Osun APC call to produce the Amotekun Commander?
I have been expecting this question. You see, you have a security agency with a total of about 25,000 personnel, and they are deployed across the state, you have these officers in various villages and towns running through the forest and trying to contain infiltrators. There may be one error or the other. Now, if you now have a commissioner of police who’s in charge of Osun, who is doing a great job, and now back at Atakunmosa, a police man fired a shot, and somebody was injured. My brother, let me ask you- will you go and arrest the commissioner for police, or will you look for the officer who fired the shot? Let me ask you.
Well, I won’t be able to answer your question.
You won’t go for the Commissioner of police. That will be out of place and order. But the commissioner of police will call the area commander, the DPO- what happened? Pick those who are involved and let them face the law. You cannot put the sin of an operative in the field on the head of the agency. If you do, that means you are actually after the head of the agency; you are not after solving the crime.
Is that, not what Leadership is all about
No, no, no, in the security sector, it does not operate like that. Let me give you an instance, in your Rave FM, if a reporter committs an error, the NBC and your management will first pick up the reporter, they won’t go for my brother, Femi Adefila. We should just look at it; how does a security agency operate? It functions in the sense that you give arms to the operative in the field; he has a code of behaviour; he has been trained to ensure that no infiltrators are coming from Ekiti to Osun in the forest. Then the man accidentally fired at a farmer, the next thing you do is to pick him up and say what happened, conduct an investigation. That is the rule. So I affirm that Governor Adeleke is not shielding the Amotekun commander or anybody.
I was going to put that to you sir, that his sudden absence or disappearance may be that the government is shielding him and absolving him of this great error.
That is simply not true. The government is not shielding Omoyele or any Amotekun official. An incident happened, someone or a group said Let’s deal with the commander, that’s another thing. The next thing we heard was that there was an assassination attempt; it was in the news. Then the police said it was false.
Who may want to assassinate him?
I equally don’t know. But in Osun as at today, is in a pre-election mode. There is a sitting Governor who has been performing wonderfully well, who has a very strong grassroots support, and who has street credibility. People love him because they have seen the job he is doing. There is an opposition that is plotting to take power by all crooked means. We have the government in place and the opposition outside. The first thing the opposition did was to ground the function of the local government system because it thought that if we hijacked the local government system, then the man would not have a grassroots base. Now the second thing they did was to close the funding flow. The sinister thinking is that if he has no money to run the system, then his government will collapse. Then they colluded and ensured Osun’s money, the LG money, is not released. So, in the case of security, they reasoned that since Amotekun is the government security arm, let’s decapitate Amotekun, let’s create a problem for them so that Amotekun will be out of the way. Then the federal security structure will be unleashed. Their evil calculations however, fail to stop the people’s governor. So, who wants to kill Omoyele? I don’t know. I am not a security man. But Omoyele, as the Commander of the Amotekun Corps has a duty to protect himself. If we are now talking about Akinlalu, you now have to talk about who the culprits are, the police have arrested about 20. Yesterday, the youth leader of that town made some revelations. Luckily for us, when the governor was going to Akinlalu yesterday, the police was represented by the Deputy Commissioner for Police, the DSS, and other services were all there. They all listened to what the youth leader said. He mentioned the names of those they thought were responsible for the killing of their men, and they were telling the governor and everybody there that these people are from their own area who are Amotekun operatives. When he was mentioning names, none of them, he never mentioned Omoyele.
Does that not make the investigation even easier? The commander should just submit himself for investigation.
See, let me take you back. You are repeating the narration of the opposition.
No, I’m not. I’m just saying maybe their call is in order.
Noo. Let me answer. I told you that we went to Akinlalu yesterday. The town people mentioned the names of the Amotekun operatives who they believe killed their people, and they said these Amotekun operatives are from their area. The town people mentioned their names. While they were doing that, the CP was represented by DCP Operations was there. They listened to him. The DSS listened, the Army, everybody there listened to him. Now the Governor openly asked the man to submit the names of those they said killed their men so that the police will know whether those people are already in the list with them, those already arrested or not. That was yesterday. The visit actually helped the investigation because we are now hearing from the town people who actually fired the shots. In fact at a point they said, 3 of those that were responsible are from Akinlalu among the operatives. When you now take it back to the commander, that is Omoyele in Osogbo, the next thing to do is to now say the Police since you now know the names of the suspects, if they are on the list of those arrested already, fine. If they are not, declare them wanted. The normal protocol is to say we are looking for so so so personnel. If they have run somewhere, you now put bounty on them, if you can get this man, we give you 500,000. Before one week you get all of them, you conclude your investigation, charge them to court. But because some people are interested in politicizing the whole matter, they now jumped from the operative in the field who committed the alleged crime to the commander of the system.
But Mallam, how much of the politicalization really can the opposition party do with the loss of lives?
You dragged the discussion to that level. I have told you what the government has done and is still doing. The government has visited the victims, supported police investigation, worked on compensation. The government through the Deputy Speaker was responsible for the medical bill of those affected. There is another person still on danger list, a medical machine has been ordered to ensure the man survives. The Governor met with the families directly; there is an ongoing review of operational code of Amotekun by the Board of Amotekun led by AIG Wale Abass.
Applaudable. But the Nigerian Police Force sent an invite to Isaac Omoyele, why can’t he just honour the invitation?
Now let me now give you further information. The governor also told the gathering yesterday that he has directed the Board of Amotekun to ensure that the Amotekun leadership should cooperate fully with the Police if they say the Police said it has anything to ask. The Governor said it publicly holding a mic and he said it in the presence of DCP, DSS, Army and others. You see I used the word politicization because the way some people take the matter, you know they have axe to grind with Amotekun all along and that axe to grind with Amotekun most of the time has political dimension, I may be wrong. So, they now want to latch on to this very unfortunate incident to achieve their own agenda. But let me tell you why we need Amotekun. There was a day I went to a big man farm around Iwo, along Odo Oba River. I went there to see one of our big men. Then I saw in the bush some people in red uniforms. I asked who are these one? They said they are the Amotekun, that they are chasing some bandits along the river side. After 30 minutes, we saw them arresting almost 20 people who are definitely not from our area. Who will run by that bush? By that river? Who will go to that area? If you see the village I’m talking about, to drive to it from my town is almost an hour. We use Amotekun to do grassroots policing. If Amotekun has done anything wrong ,we correct it. If one of them commits a crime, he faces the law and that is the position of Mr Governor.
Just one or two more questions for you. I would like to ask you that there are coalition of civil society organization who raised an alarm as at the time Omoyele was appointed as Amotekun commander, they said that the Osun state judiciary panel made an enquiry on police brutality during End SARS indicted CSP Omoyele, don’t you think they are justified right now?
My brother, you know I’m the Spokesperson to Mr Governor, his Media Adivser and then I’m to speak, defend, promote and of course clarify areas that affects Mr Governor as the Chief Executive of the state. So I am not the Spokesperson of Amotekun.
I know. The angle I am coming from is that the Governor did not listen to these voices to do his groundwork.
I want to answer your question. You know in Nigeria, the rule of law is the main mantra for this democratic system, and it is that an allegation remains an allegation until proven and of course if you allege until that person is convicted by court of law, it remains in the realm of allegation. If I call you names now, you can sue me for defamation of character. In the case of Omoyele or any other political appointee, people will write petitions. Of course it is normal just like people are writing against the new appointed Chairman of INEC. The next thing you do is, you check through the petition. if you now discover that one of the allegations in the petition has actually been proven at a court of law with conviction, you drop the person. See if we are to run a government through just mere hearsay then many innocent people will suffer harms. When they raise an allegation against someone you have to check. Has this man been convicted of anything? If a panel says this, what happened to the report of the panel? Was it challenged in court? Was it validated? Was the man charged to court? Convicted? Was Omoyele ever convicted by a court of law? The answer is No. These are just it. You don’t just come on board and say because somebody alleged somebody against somebody then he is guilty. Allegation is not guilty. Let me ask you, I want you to do a story on it, has any success been recorded by Amotekun or not? Or has Amotekun been all failure as opposition has been canvassing? No, Amotekun has had fantastic operational successes in many areas. I have personal experience, the Odo Oba case.
So his appointment is not a political payback?
It is not a political payback; the governor looked for people who can do the job. See, me and you we are journalists; we can handle investigative journalism; that’s our call, you get it. If you go and put a barber to handle your job or my job, the person will fail. So you need somebody tested in the field, someone who knows what crime and criminals are like to actually run such a security agency. So Omoyele appointment was on merit. If the Governor rely only on allegation to make appointments, then the state will not function. Once again, I want to repeat the words of Mr Governor to the people of Akinlalu that again he commiserated with them. He promised them that those involved will face the law and there will be no sacred cows. The Amotekun will cooperate fully with the police in the ongoing investigation and victims will be duly compensated. Operational review of Amotekun, is ongoing. The board chairman, Wale Abass and others are working. Mr Governor assures the public that Osun will remain the most peaceful state it has been despite this unfortunate incident.
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