Kogi State Police Command has warned the governorship candidate of the state chapter of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Yakubu Ajaka, to stop misleading the public with perfidious allegations.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Bethrand Onuoha, also urged the SDP candidate to focus on issued-based campaign.
He assured that the Police is irrevocably committed to providing a level-playing ground for all political parties ahead the governorship election in the state.
Onuoha stated this is in reaction to an allegation reportedly by Faruk Adejoh-Audu, the Director, Communications, Murtala Yakubu Ajaka, that he (Onuoha) was planning to attack supporters of Ajaka.
The admonitions were contained in a press release by the state Police Public Relations Officer, SP William Ovye Aya, dated 3 September, 2023.
Onuoha stated that the attention of the Police has been drawn to “a fake, incendiary, perfidious, malicious and misleading allegation making the rounds by one Faruk Adejoh-Audu, Director Communications Murtala Yakubu Ajaka Gubernatorial Campaign Organisation.”
“[The allegation] is to the effect that the Commissioner of Police Bethrand Onuoha plans attack on Ajaka supporters in Kogi LGA.”
He categorically stated that the allegation was not only a figment of the imagination of Adejoh-Audu and his candidate, Yakubu Ajaka, but also “totally false, malicious, pretentious, and highly mischievous.”
The Kogi Police Command accused the SDP governorship candidate of having mastered the art of political gimmickry and brigandage.
It asserted that the Commissioner of Police, who assumed duty one month ago, has so far demonstrated a high level of professionalism.
This, the Command stated, Onuoha demonstrated by providing a level-playing ground for all political parties and their candidates to operate in the state.
The Kogi Police warned that Onuoha should not be dragged into politics, adding that the SDP candidate and his campaign organisation should leave the Police alone.
Ajaka was advised to focus on issues-based campaigns and solicit support from the electorate, “instead of resorting to cheap blackmail, bullying and arm-twisting for political sympathy from the public who already know their tricks, gimmicks and antecedents.
“The entire narrative to injure, assassinate and malign the hard-earned reputation and integrity of the Commissioner of Police is the height of insensitivity, callousness and self-serving.
“It is emblematic of desperation, vindictiveness, a propensity for destructiveness and to salivate the insidious and vaulting political ambition of a psychopath.”
Onuoha also alleged that the SDP candidate and his supporters, on 3rd June, 2023, blocked and attacked the convoy of Governor Yahaya Bello at Banda, along Abuja-Lokoja Road.
“During the attack, some of the governor’s aides sustained varying degrees of injuries.
“All efforts, invitations and entreaties to come and give his own side of the incident has come to nought.
“Yet he has been moving around the nooks and crannies of the state without any molestation, even when he has no immunity. The case is still under investigation.
“In a democracy, freedom of expression is a right, but it must be accompanied by responsibility, not to hide under its guise to spin out lies, falsehood, innuendos and sensationalism.
“It shows the writer and his sponsors have no decorum, decency, intellect, and are oblivious of the legal consequences of deformation and assassination of character.”
The Commissioner of Police however appealed to Yakubu Ajaka and his campaign organisation to leave him alone.
He urged the SDP candidate to stop all negative write-ups and frivolous allegations “aimed at undermining the spirited crime-fighting efforts of the Police in Kogi State and whipping up sentiment against them and heating up the state for no just cause.”
He also advised the people of the state, who he described as “peace loving, highly enlightened, politically sophisticated” to disregard and discountenance such mischievous and malicious information.
Onuoha urged the people “to be wary of being hoodwinked by merchants of violence”, and “instead gravitate towards issues that unite the state rather than those that divide you.”
