BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
MEMBERS of the Osun Civilian Joint Task Force have staged a protest over the alleged alteration of the list of their members submitted for the ongoing community policing recruitment.
The Modakeke chapter of the Civilian TJF during the peaceful demonstration, accused the Special Adviser to the State Governor, Gboyega Oyetola, on Innovation, Science and Technology, Kareem Ismaeel, of shortchanging their members in the recruitment.
The angry protesters, while armed with placards bearing various inscriptions, took to the streets of the ancient town on Tuesday, to register their grievances over the alleged alteration of names of their members who they claimed had earlier been selected for the policing job.
They marched to the palace of Ogunsua of Modakeke, Oba Moses Oyediran, the Police Divisional Headquarters of Modakeke as well as to residences of some important community leaders.
They claimed that the investigation they carried out revealed that Ismaeel was allegedly behind the manipulation.
It was gathered that a total of 16 special police constabularies were to be selected from each local government of Osun State, and that Ife East Area Office was given eight vacancies to fill.
Eight men had been screened by the B Divisional Police Officer, Modakeke, and their names had been sent to the State Government.
Speaking, the Commander of the Modakeke Division of Vigilante Group of Nigeria, Awodele Temitope, said, “About two weeks ago, I was reliably informed that the names submitted had been altered by some political leaders in the community. The people that were earlier screened and submitted were members of different community voluntary security outfits.
“I was also informed that this list was reduced to five as against the earlier eight, and the composition of the new list are people with no security backgrounds, but politicians; and they were said to have gone to training since Easter Monday for commencement of training. We can’t be securing the community during hard times, and get cheated at even the slightest opportunity.”
Reacting, the Governor’s aide, Ismaeel, said he was not aware of any list as claimed by the aggrieved protesters before the state asked him to present five names for community policing of the area.
“The government gave directive that I should submit five names as representative of the government which I did and if they asked them to submit eight names, how do I know?” He queried rehtorically.
The protesters therefore declared a three-day ultimatum for the list to be normalised or they would declare a “sit-at-home” exercise for all members.
