Oshiomhole wants DIG sacked over Oyerinde’s death probe

Edo State Governor Comrade Adams Oshiomhole
| credits:

Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole on Thursday in Abuja called for the dismissal of the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Peter Gana,  who supervised the investigation into the murder of his private secretary, Olaitan Oyerinde.

Oshiomhole alleged that the DIG was shielding  the real killers and urged  President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene in the matter.

He said the State Security Service apprehended Oyerinde’s suspected killers while the police arrested and detained an innocent civil rights activist, Rev. David Ugolor, for two months without trial in disobedience of a court order.

The governor, who canvassed for the scraping of the Police Affairs ministry on the grounds that it politicises the Force, noted that with a functional Police Service Commission, the country would not need a ministry in charge of police affairs.

The governor said this while delivering a key note address at the inauguration of a Code of Conduct for officers and men of the Nigeria Police, Vice-President, Namadi Sambo represented President Goodluck Jonathan.

Oshiomhole said, “I am aggrieved; I am aggrieved over the murder of my private secretary and the way in which it was trivialised.

“I am saying it knowing that the Vice President is here. My secretary was murdered in cold blood and you dispatched a DIG to supervise that investigation; a DIG is a sufficiently senior officer. They came to Benin and they did what Fela (Ransome-Kuti) would have called police magic.

“At the end, they went for a civil rights activist and charged him for the offence of murder.”

Oshiomhole alleged that the DIG conspired with other officers involved in the investigation to shield the killers of Oyerinde, saying they were no longer fit to wear police uniform.

He added, “The DIG Force CID has a case to answer; it is either he is guilty of conspiracy to murder or is guilty of conspiracy to shield murderers or both. In which case he cannot wear his police uniform, he must be dismissed.

“The Deputy Commissioner of Police that he used claimed that they had done a thorough job. He has no business wearing police uniform because by my judgment, in his own narrative, he is a criminal.”

The governor lamented that one of the problems of  Nigeria, including the police and even the civil service was the culture of impunity where people do things wrongly and got away with it.

In his response, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, said the case was still under investigation and assured the governor that the outcome of the probe would be made public.

Jonathan charged officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force to exhibit the finest ideals of professionalism in the discharge of their duties, and directed the IG to furnish him with details of assessment of police conduct on a quarterly basis.