BY AKINWALE ABOLUWADE, IBADAN
A Lagos-based lawyer and rights activist, Kabir Akingbolu, has urged the Nigerian Police not to allow themselves to be used as an instrument of intimidation against a leading Islamic scholar in the South-West, Mallam Yusuf Adepoju.
Akingbolu, principal partner, Salawu, Akingbolu and co., in a statement issued at the weekends, made available to THE POINT, described the recent siege to the Adepoju’s Ilobu, Osun State home by the police as an infringement on the scholar’s fundamental human right.
The statement described the alleged involvement of Adepoju in a case of defamation of character being investigated by the police as a blackmail and frame up.
Adepoju’s travails started a few days ago after some unidentified individuals were seen loitering around his Ilobu, Osun State home.
The statement by his lawyer read that being a law abiding citizen, when his relatives alerted him that there were some strange movements around his house, Adepoju simply dismissed it as nothing but (in accordance with) the imagination of his people, “he was wrong!
“Like a thief in the night, on Tuesday, 16th November, the house of the Islamic scholar was besieged by people suspected to be either from The Nigerian Police or the Department of State Service around 3am. Though Adepoju was lucky not to be around when the ‘visitors’ came, he obviously got the message in a hard way through the emotional torture inflicted on members of his family.
“Few hours later, precisely around 5pm, when Mallam Yusuf thought the siege was over, the visitors returned, this time in a military commando manner, armed with a letter of invitation from the Office of the Commissioner of Police, Police Special Fraud Unit, Abuja. In the letter of invitation, it was stated that the office was investigating alleged case of defamation of character/character assassination, where Mallam Yusuf allegedly featured,” the statement read.
It further quoted a letter dated 16th November, signed by one Tahir Usman, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, as reading that “In the light of the above, you are requested to interview the Deputy Inspector General of Police through the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Special Fraud Unit, Force Criminal Investigation Department, Area 10, Garki, Abuja on 24th November, 2021 at 11am for clarification on the alleged case.”
In reaction, the lawyer’s statement alleged that “some powerful individuals in the society who are not comfortable with truth and pragmatic evangelical movement of the renowned Islamic scholar are bent on taking him out of the way by all possible means.
“It is ridiculous that in a civilised society, and with the frantic effort being made to suppress issues that could aggravate to religious crisis, some section of the Police is still falling for blackmail being sponsored by some individuals to oppress or silence other parties. On this note, I call on the Police to thread with caution in addressing the issue as Adepoju has never been found to clash or being in contention with anybody.
“To me, this development can only put our highly revered security agencies into ridicule and public odium.”
A ‘save our souls’ statement issued earlier by Adepoju’s brother, Mubarak Adepoju, had appealed to concerned individuals in the society to come to the aide of the cleric.
Adepoju’s investigation was said to have been orchestrated in a bid to scuttle a public lecture which he is billed to deliver on November 26, in Ilorin, Kara State.
