DESPITE assurances by the Osun State Police Command that men of the Joint Task Force in the state, who allegedly chased a 21-year-old apprentice of Engineering, Idris Ajibola, to death, will be fished out and made to face Justice, no arrest or parade has been made.
It is 15 days after the tragic incident in Osogbo.
On Tuesday, September 15, 2020, Idris, a student of Love and Peace Technology Training Centre in Sagamu Ogun State, who was a resident of Ofatedo, Egbedero Local Government, was chased to the point of death, allegedly by operatives of JTF in Osun, while returning from the Osun Mall in Osogbo.
The Point learnt that the deceased had followed two of his friends, Raheem Abdullahi and another, simply identified as Dayo, to the Osun Mall in Osogbo to buy bread, where they met one other Abdulraheem Adekunle (Taflad), who went to the store with his father’s Toyota Corolla carz with registration number KUJ-553LY Abuja.
Idris, who was seeking admission to a higher institution, to study Engineering, was involved in a fatal accident with three of his friends during an alleged chase by the armed security operatives.
The Osun police command had vowed to investigate how the horrible motor accident happened and fish out the culprits.
DSS sources said that the police invited all the JTF officials in the state for questioning during the week of the incident.
Ever since then, the police has failed to either parade the suspects or make any arrest relating to the incident.
However, Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State, on September 16, ordered for an extensive investigation into the events that led to the reported death of Idris.
Oyetola, through the Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Funke Egbemode, expressed shock over the incident and the disruption that followed.
He asked the State Command of the Nigeria Police to get to the bottom of the matter.
The governor said nobody had a right under the law to take a life, saying that all lives mattered in the state.
In the same vien, on Thursday September 17, the member of the House of Representatives, representing Ede North, South/Egbedero/ Ejigbo Federal Constituency, Bamidele Salam, gave the Inspector-General of Police, Muhammad Adamu, a seven-day ultimatum to apprehend the policemen who allegedly chased Idris to death.
Salam made series of promises and threatened to sue the Nigeria Police for aggravated damages if the force did not parade the perpetrators within seven days.
Since then, nothing was heard from the lawmaker regarding the lawsuit, which according to him, would be filed on behalf of the family of the deceased.
When contacted through WhatsApp after the seven-day ultimatum elapsed, on September 23, Salam responded, “I just delivered a notice to that effect to the office of the IG today. Please await my further briefing. Thank you.”
When asked further if the lawmaker served a notice for ultimatum or court notice, Salam did not respond and has remained silent as of the time of filing this story.
Recall that the family of the deceased who just lost another son to a car accident, about three months ago, cried for justice on the death of Idris.
The spokesperson of the Police in Osun, Yemisi Opalola, has not been answering telephone calls put across to her for two days and did not reply to a text message sent to her.
Opalola had said that the health status of the state Commissioner of Police, Undie Adie, who was involved in an accident during a trip to Ebonyi State, had been delaying the release of the report on the incident by the Command.
The deceased’s elder sister, Rukayat Ajibola, urged the Inspector-General of Police, Muhammad Adamu, and the Osun State Government to investigate the death of her brother and ensure Justice is served on culprits.
Rukayat urged the government to ensure that the matter was not swept under the carpet.
“I urge the government and IGP to investigate my brother’s death. The government should do something about the killing of youths in the country,” she said.
