The Travails of A Journalist In Olorunsogo, Molete, Ibadan Nigeria

The Oyo state Police Command is determined to shield some of its personnel, who have for long worked hand-in-gloves with some members of the public to intimidate, threaten, attack, blackmail and terrorize the Editor-In-Chief of Federationews2day,  Solomon Adewunmi.
 
The officers and men attached to the Iyaganku Area Command and the Felele Police station,have always acted faceless residents of Olorunsogo, Molete, who remain solidly behind their actions. On two occasions, one of which was on Sunday, 25 May, 2008, Mrs. Koloko in connivance with the then Divisional Crime Officer(DCO) the Challenge Police station, Orita Challenge, facilitated the arrest of the journalist. While in the office of the DCO, the journalist was repeatedly threatened.

In another plot against the journalist,a letter titled” A Petition Against Solomon Adewumi” and dated 20 November, 2008, was received by the Assistant Commissioner of Police(ACP), Iyaganku Area Command, Mrs. Abiodun Ige on 30 April, 2009.

On Saturday 9 May, 2009, Mrs. Ige ordered the arrest of Adewunmi on trumped up charges,through one Simon and four other heavily armed policemen from the same command. During the detention of the journalist for eight hours, the policemen repeatedly provided situation report to Mrs. Koloko through the phone.

Curiously, one Chukuwuma Joseph, Bola Adeniran and Mrs. Taiwo Owoeye, a pastor’s wife, who Adewunmi had reported a case of malicious damage against in August, 2008 at the Felele Police station, were now used as witnesses in the case generated by the Police.

Even though the worried journalist informed the then Commissioner of Police, Baba Adisa Bolanta, about this development through a letter titled”Attempts To Pervert Justice” and dated 11 May, 2009, and even made verbal protests, the police response was carefree.

Indeed, the letter was referred to the Provost Marshall’s office at the state police command, under the headship of a Deputy Superintendent of Police, Oseni and one Sergeant I.Oladejo was assigned to handle it. Surprisingly, both opted to cultivate a mutually beneficial relationship with those the letter was written against.

Now desperate to pervert justice, the police moved the duo out of reach, while Joseph Ale, another policeman attached to the Felele Police Station, who midwifed the forceful entry into an apartment in the journalist’s residence, was subtly given the go ahead to instigate Chukuma Joseph and four others against the journalist. Joseph Ale was the Investigating Police Officer(IPO) in a case of mailicious damage reported by Adewunmi, in August, 2008.

Not done with their sinister plot, on Sunday 9 August, 2009, the police influenced a false report of threat to life by one Mrs. Olawoyin against the journalist at the Felele Police station. One Kehinde was assigned the case to investigate, but she compromised her position as a police rank and file. Mrs. Olawoyin’s husband, a cooperative officer with the Oyo state Ministry of Trade, Investment and Cooperatives, conspired with, a carpenter Ale and some other policemen to forcefully gain entry into an apartment in Adewunmi’s residence, while he was being interrogated at the Iyaganku Area command.

 Although this was brought to the notice of the police, the headship of the Felele Police station decided to look the other way. The Edo born Divisional Police Officer (DPO) had always displayed signs of bias in handling cases brought before him concerning the journalist. Interestingly, the DPO has always maintained a symbiotic relationship with all those against the journalist.

In order to actualize a well scripted plot, the journalist was detained from 4.00pm in the evening to 9.30pm in the night, with plans to put him in the cell till the next day. This was, however thwarted by the then Police Public Relations Officer(PPRO), Bisi Okwuobi, who called the DPO to justify his action.

Although the journalist informed the Commissioner of Police of the incident in a letter dated 31 August, 2009 and titled ”Denial Of Justice”, and even met on two separate occasions with the Police Boss, mum is the word from the police.

Greatly disturbed by the attitude of the Oyo state Police Command, the journalist wrote a letter to the Assistant Inspector General of Police, zone11, Osogbo, Osun state, Yesufu Mohammed, titled ”INJUSTICE” and dated 3 December, 2009. After the IPO in charge of the case, one Inspector Odelade, took the statement of the journalist, various excuses characterized his subsequent reactions.

Again on Saturday 14, August, 2010, the same Chukwuma Joseph and his wife, Blessing, in connivance with some night guards in the Olorunsogo, Molete area, brought false allegations against the journalist, physically assaulted him and forcefully gained entrance into his apartment. Forty thousand naira cash and a number of his personal belongings were stolen. After which a report was made at the Felele Police station.

The same Joseph Ale, who has always played a role in the travails of Adewunmi was assigned the case. Ale took Chukwuma Joseph’s statement and conducted a search of the journalist’s apartment alongside the CRO of the police station. Also present were the night guards and the coordinator of the night guards.

Surprisingly, a plain paper without the Nigeria Police Force logo and name was presented as a search warrant. Indeed, Adewunmi’s request to be shown a search warrant, was met with a forceful entry of his apartment by the policemen. No search warrant was presented by the policemen.However, nothing incriminating was found in his apartment.

Again, another search was carried out on the journalist’s apartment, the same day, by Kehinde, another police man- Olayiwola Ibrahim, Chukwuma Joseph, a night guard and the coordinator of the night guards. Sadly, no search warrant was presented again, while some items were, secretly removed from his apartment. Again, nothing incriminating was found in the journalist’s apartment.

In quick succession, he was detained from 7.00am on that saturday morning, 14 august, 2010, until 2.00pm on Sunday, 15 August, 2010, and hurriedly arraigned before the Iyaganku magisterate court 7 on Monday, 16 August, 2010. With active connivance of the D.P.O OF the Felele Police Station, Adewunmi was remanded in the Agodi prisons for three days.

Again, he wrote a letter to the AIG, zone11 dated 23 August 2010 and titled”INJUSTICE PART 2”. In the letter, he recounted his experience in the hands of the police at the Felele Police station.

 However, the letter was referred to the Oyo state Police Command, which in turn sent it to the Criminal Investigation Department(CID), Iyaganku. The Investigating Police Officer, Femi Ajibade with the assistance of the journalist invited Chukuma Joseph and others mentioned in his petition. But curiously, after obtaining their statements, Ajibade only searched the apartment of the principal suspect, without visiting the scene of the incident and inviting another principal suspect, Blessing Chukuma.

On saturday, 8 october, 2011, at about 8.45pm, one Yemi Ajala of Kehinde Aderibigbe street, Olorunsogo, Molete, Ibadan attacked and robbed the journalist. The journalist reported the matter at the Felele police station the next morning. When the policewoman on duty would record the entry, she recorded assault as against the robbery the journalist reported. She said that the suspect’s brother, who is a Superintendent of Police and Divisional Traffic Officer of the Police Divisional Headquarters, Iyana Offa, was her ‘Oga’. Indeed the senior police officer eventually showed up at the station to bail the suspect. And eversince the authorities of the police station have refused to act on the matter.

Most recently, a man in his mid forties, Daniel Offiong, who rented a room in a three bedroom flat, pretended to be a taxi driver, to get the accommodation. Although his has a golf car, painted in Oyo state Taxi colours, he does not use it for that purpose.

 For long, the man, Offiong had been living a suspicious life, while receiving visitors, who are mostly ‘okada riders, in his apartment. Despite the fact that the journalist intimated the Divisional Crime Officer of the Felele Police station of the ways of the man, other considerations beclouded his sense of reasoning. These days Offiong and his cohorts hide motorcycles of suspicious origins in his apartment, with the knowledge of the Police.

While the Landlady of 5 Kehinde Aderibigbe street, Olorunsogo, Molete, has converted the journalist's residence and the drainage in front to a refuse dump, a tenant residing at No. 6 of the same street, Mrs. Adesanya(Mama Tobi) on 30 December, 2015 alongside are family members at about 8.30pm in the night, robbed, the attacked and robbed the journalist, on his way into his residence.

Indeed, the Landlords and Tenants Association Iin Olorunsogo, Molete, Ibadan, led by one Alhaji Adetayo, have for several years played criminally suggestive roles in the Journalist’s travails. Indeed, most house owners in the community are not meticulous, when they want to take in tenants.
 Even, as majority of the youths have been brought up to take crime as a means to an end.

Till date, the Oyo state Police Command have devoted their energy towards ensuring their that the journalist does not get justice.

The unanswered question now is, if the police is incapable of ensuring that a law abiding citizen such as the journalist get justice, who does this helpless citizen turn to ?