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Adedibu: The Police vs The SSS
Comfort Obi
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Lamidi Adedibu is a Moslem. So, I
wouldn’t know whether he indulges in an occasional glass of Champagne. If he does, he must have popped a bottle penultimate week to celebrate. His exploits had two top security agencies – the police, and the State Security Service (SSS), contradict each other within 24 hours. The next day, the old man’s photograph was splashed on the front page of some national dailies, spotting a big laugh, and walking hand-in-hand with his number one public enemy, Governor Rashidi Ladoja of Oyo State. The two had gone to Aso Rock, I guess, on the invitation of President Olusegun Obasanjo, where Adedibu, not Ladoja, was begged to let peace reign. It will not surprise anybody if he addresses a press conference to say that Mr President knelt down to beg him.
So, what is it between Adedibu, the police, and the SSS? Why should the two security agencies contradict each other over Adedibu?
It started on Monday, February 19, when the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Sunday Ehindero, told a shocked nation that Adedibu was not a trouble-maker. He said Adedibu was innocent of all allegations of political thuggery, or malpractice, and dared anybody to show him any evidence to the contrary. Ehindero: "People simply try to disparage the old man without any evidence at their disposal. When I received several complaints purporting that Adedibu was involved in some unwholesome activities, I invited him to this place, and he came, and I obtained an undertaking from him to be of good behaviour. The problem most of you have is that you don’t have your facts against Adedibu.”
Wonderful. But let’s exercise some patience and take more quotes from the IGP. Asked why Adedibu has not been prosecuted over the discovery of Independent National Electoral Commission's (INEC) direct data capture machines in his premises, the IGP dismissed it as a non-issue. Ehindero: “The other time people alleged he was in possession of ballot paper printing machines I invited him. If you read his statements, some of you say he is an illiterate, you will marvel. He denied all allegations."
Let me ask Ehindero some questions before I leave him for the SSS.
One: Ehindero says Adedibu is not a trouble-maker. Good. So, why did the IGP obtain an undertaking from him to be of good behaviour? Surely, if you invite a man of peace to a meeting, all you do is shake hands with him, and ask him to continue with his good deeds. You don’t obtain an undertaking from him to be of good behaviour. Two: Ehindero says he wants evidence(s). What other evidence does he need than the continuous political thuggery in the state, which has reduced it to a war zone, almost. All the IGP needs to do is to ask: who are behind all these? In a second, he would know. Three: The IGP says he asked Adedibu about the Electronic Machines and he denied it all. That the machines were not found in his possession. True? But why wouldn’t he deny? Did the IGP expect him to accept? Did the IGP expect that Adedibu would be caught operating the machines himself? The IGP says Adedibu told him he didn’t carry the machines to his house. Of course not. He didn’t. That will be too obvious. But the case is a straight-forward one. Did INEC discover its machines in Adedibu’s premises, which had no business being there? Yes. Did INEC tell us that at the time of discovery, some 800 voters had been registered? Yes. Were those who were operating the machines arrested? Yes. Was Adedibu’s compound designated a registration centre? No.
But, let me be fair. I am not a security personnel. So, let’s look at the opinion, the assessment, of the new Oyo State Director of the SSS, Adebayo Babalola, on the state of affairs in Oyo State, and where he strongly pointed accusing fingers to.
Addressing journalists in Ibadan, where he declared one of Adedibu’s strongest political allies, and “order enforcer,” Alhaji Lateef Akinsola (aka Tokyo) wanted, placing a one million naira ransome on his head, Babalola consistently referred to an “uneducated old man”, who wouldn’t respect himself or his age, and who had turned Oyo State inside out, upside down. Tokyo, a man allegedly connected to many atrocities in the state, is the factional chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the state. Before his alleged disappearance, he had been standing trial for terrorism, and political thuggery, in a court. Railing at political thugs and their backers, and bemoaning the fate of Oyo State, Babalola warned that enough was enough. His words: “We are no longer in the 13th century when primitive, and uneducated people reigned supreme…. It beats my imagination that an old man that ought to be a role model to the young ones is being linked with political disturbances in the state, which had consumed lives and property. We respect elderly people. But elderly people that fail to respect themselves will be dragged on the floor if found to be perpetrating any unlawful act. If an old man will not respect himself, he will be dealth with."
Of course, Babalola did not mention any names. But it is obvious that the old man who he consistently pointed out is the same old man the IGP is telling us is innocent. So, who do we believe?
Truth is: this old man is not innocent. Truth is: the political stench from this old man stinks to high heavens. Truth is: For too long, this old man has held sway. Truth is: It would take men like EFCC's Nuhu Ribadu and Babalola to tell the old man that enough is, now, enough. An invitation to Aso Rock, and broad smiles, meant for cameras, are not likely to do it. It had failed a number of times. And it will fail again.
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