By Dare Olawin.
(dareolawin@yahoo.com)
When the news of the embattled Divisional Police Officer of Sagamu got to the media, it generated controversies between the Ogun State Police command and a member of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Hon. Yinka Mafe, who is the one reperesenting Sagamu 1 Constituency.
Nigerians did not know who to believe between the police and the lawmaker. This was because the actors involved are people of integrity; people who are opinion leaders in our society; or how would you have defined a Police Public Relations Officer and the Majority Leader of a State House of Assembly, who is a also a Lawyer by profession? Okay, you can say it was a battle between a lawmaker and a law enforcement agent.
On February 23, Hon. Yinka Mafe performed his duty to his people by informing the house of the various petitions he had received from residents of Sagamu about the activities of the DPO, John Mark. Mafe, told members of the Ogun State House of Assembly that Mr Mark had been performing illegal arrests in Sagamu, extorting innocent residents by collecting money from them to grant them bails, among others.
In a swift reaction, the Ogun State House of Assembly, through the Speaker, Hon. Suraj Adekunbi, ordered the immediate probe of the DPO, Sagamu Division. Adekunbi asked the state Commissioner of Police, Abdulmajid Ali, to investigate the matter in order to prevent a breakdown of law and order.
Is this too much for Mafe to do? Does he not have the power to protect the fundamental human right of his constituents whenever he feels such is being violated? The house did not even tell the Commissioner of Police to redeploy Mr Mark or sanction him; it only asked him to investigate the matter in order to prevent a breakdown of law and order.
But the reaction from the PPRO, Muyiwa Adejobi, was totally out of point. Instead of the PPRO to take a look at the call made to the command to investigate the concerned DPO, he went ‘haywire’ and started speaking profanities of the person of Hon. Mafe; calling him names.
Mr Adejobi lowered Hon. Mafe in the estimation of any right-thinking person. He disparaged him to the extent of almost calling him a criminal. One would have thought that Adejobi was trying to settle personal scores with the lawmaker; it seemed there was a grouse between the two, but I was surprised when Mafe said Adejobi and the CP were both present at his birthday ceremony recently.
Adejobi said the command was not aware of any complaint against the Sagamu DPO, arguing that Mark remained the best Divisional Officer in the state. He said if the allegation was coming from another person or group of persons from Sagamu, the command would have taken it seriously, and not when it was coming from Hon. Mafe.
He said that the command was investigating 15 criminal cases allegedly involving Mafe. He told newsmen that the lawmaker might be arrested and prosecuted after the completion of the investigation. The PPRO said the majority leader has no moral justification to level such allegation against the command, saying, he was being investigated for criminal activities.
His words: “The allegation is unknown to the command, because the DPO; CSP Mark is one of the best Divisional Police Officers in this command. He was actually posted to Sagamu to uproot the evil and the evil doers in Sagamu. It takes a tough man to control security arrangement in Sagamu.
“He is there doing what he should do and we expect people to make noise especially criminals and sponsors of criminals concerning what the DPO is doing because he is there doing what he should do.
“If the allegation had come from another person who has clean hands, the matter would have been taken more seriously by the command, but, we are surprised, this is coming from Hon Mafe who is also one of the suspects we are investigating in many criminal cases in Sagamu; talking about sponsorship of cultism and many other criminal activities, he doesn’t have the moral justification to raise such an allegation against the Sagamu DPO and he should not personalise issues like this.
“We want to say, without mincing words that the allegations are baseless. We have 15 criminal cases against this person, all I know is that by the time we finish the investigations against him we are going to address the press."
The question that came to mind after reading Adejobi’s reaction was: “Why saying all these now? Why did you attend Mafe’s birthday party when you know he is being investigated as a suspected criminal or are you his accomplices? Has Mafe for once been invited or indicted by the command?
No one knows whether Mafe is being investigated or not. No one is saying he has clean hands, but we all know that until he is found guilty of an offence, he remains a good and an innocent citizen of Nigeria and an Ogun lawmaker. So, he has all moral justifications to raise an alarm when he deems it fit.
Adejobi is a police officer of repute, no doubt. He is one of the best PPRO the Nigerian Police Force has ever produced; but why the goofing this time? It is unprofessional to conclude that the DPO has not done anything wrong when you have not investigated him.
If Adejobi were a politician, the whole issue would have been understandable as politicians would always strive to score cheap political goals against each other.
Mafe, in his reactions accused the state police command of trying to blackmail him with false allegations. The lawmaker dared the police, saying he was ready for prosecution but alleged that he was being blackmailed for raising corruption allegations against Mr Mark, saying, he has about 50 petitions against him.
He added: “I don’t want to sound like I alleged the DPO (did something wrong),” he said. “I have in my possession series of petitions from victims of extortion, criminal extortions I called them, because these are innocent people that would be arrested unlawfully and money would be demanded from them and until they pay those monies they wouldn’t be allowed to go home.”
“It baffles me that the PPRO and CP himself will wait until now that I am accusing one of the unprofessional policemen that I have ever met in my life, CSP John Mark, before coming out with this allegation of 15 criminal cases they claimed to be investigating.
“I want to urge and challenge them to speed up the investigation, so that they can take me to court. I am a lawyer and I am ready to meet them in court."
The lawmaker expressed dismay that the Ogun Police, (whose leadership include the Commissioner of Police and the Public Relations Officer), who were at his (Mr. Mafe’s) birthday celebration a fortnight ago would associate with someone being investigated for criminal activities.
When Sagamu youths felt the CP and the PPRO were not heeding their voices, they took to the street to protest against the DPO, who they said had turned them into an Automated Teller Machine, ATM, from where he withdrew money every day. The peaceful protest of Sagamu showed to the world that Hon. Mafe was really right with the allegations he raised against the embattled DPO.
People were very amazed to hear that the Ogun CP could redeploy Mr John Mark and set up a panel to investigate the allegations against him. I guess this was what the Ogun Assembly had urged the CP to do initially before things get out of hand. Why did the command wait until a protest was held before doing the needful? What if the protest had turned bloody? Why is the command now taking actions on allegations it earlier described ‘baseless’?
It seems the PPRO did not know that even before Hon. Mafe reported the said DPO, youths from Sagamu have employed the social media to channel their grievances.
They explained how the DPO would just arrest people without any offence and charge them up to N20,000 before granting them bails. They said he even did same to an Oba's wife.
Without being economical with the truth, Hon. Yinka Mafe deserves unreserved apologies from Ogun Police command and its PPRO, Adejobi. An open letter should be written to the lawmaker and the house as a wholewhole
After this, the lawmakers, the police as well as the state executive council should have a roundtable so as to map out strategies that would ensure proper policing of lives and properties in Ogun State.
That does not mean Hon. Mafe should not be thoroughly investigated on the ‘15 criminal allegations’ the command said it had against his person. Investigate him without fear or favour and make him face the full wrath of the law if found guilty.
Also, the report of DPO John Mark’s investigations should also be made public. Nigerians are waiting to know who is lying between the DPO and the people of Sagamu as we all know the security arrangement in that town.
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