Adejoke Adeleye/Abeokuta
The Ogun Commissioner for Police, Mr. Bashir Makama, has debunked allegations that the past governor of Ogun state, Senator Ibikunle Amosun surrendered 1000 Ak 47 rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition to Command on the 28th of May this year.
A newspaper had alleged that the past governor surrended guns and ammunitions which he had acquired to use for the March 9 governorship and House of Assembly elections to the police boss while leaving office as the number one citizen of the state.
But while denying this in a press statement made available to newsmen in Abeokuta, the Police said there is not iota of truth in the claim that the immediate governor acquired the ammunitions for the just concluded elections.
“The attention of Ogun State Police Command has been drawn to a news item with the above caption published by “PREMIUM TIME” an online media outfit and the Command wishes to put the record straight as follows;
“On the 28th of May 2019, the then Governor of Ogun State Senator Ibikunle Amosun FCA CON invited the Commissioner of Police Cp Bashir Makama to come and take delivery of some ammunition and other items which has been in the State government armoury.
“Upon the invitation, the Commissioner of Police with his management team moved to the Governor’s office at Oke-Imosan where the items were presented to them in public.
“The items handed over to the Command on that day were: one armoured personnel carrier (APC) vehicle, One million four hundred and forty thousand, four hundred and twenty (1,440,420) rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, two hundred and seventy one units of amoured vests and 3 ballistic helmets.
“Immediately the Command took delivery of the items, the Force Headquarters was notified via an official signal as a normal procedure and standard practice of reporting any incident.
“It is worthy of note that not a single AK 47 riffle was among the items handed over to the Command by the former governor, the much talked about 1,000 riffles were those purchased by the State government and handed over to the Command in the year 2012. The former governor only made reference to it during the handing over on 28th May 2019.
“It is therefore a thing of surprise to read from Premium Time that 1,000 AK47 riffles were handed over to the police in addition to four million rounds of ammunition. The outfit also mischievously accused the Command and the former governor of engaging in conspiracy of silence whereas, it was the writer who rather than waiting for the response to his questionnaire rushed to the press in total violation of ethic of journalism.
“Also, the baseless assertion of the writer that the CP was making frantic efforts to inform the Force headquarters ahead of the publication to avoid been in trouble if the headquarters learnt about the incident through media only exist in the imagination of the writer as the office of Inspector General of Police has been duly informed even before the writer got wind of the matter.
“In as much as the Command is not willing to join issue with premium time, it is necessary for the outfit to always verify any information at its disposal before publication as that is the best standard practice all over the world”