16th January, 2019
Adejoke Adeleye, Abeokuta
Ogun State Coalition of Civil Society Organizations, CSO, Pro-democracy and Human Rights Organizations have warned political jobbers not to militarise the state by calling on President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector General of Police for security intervention ahead of February 16 and March 2nd 2019, elections.
The coalition which consist of over sixty civil society groups was led by comrade Folarin Olayinka in a press conference with newsmen at Nigeria Union of Journalists secretariat, Iweroyin, Abeokuta, described the writers of a letter which was titled “Letter to President Buhari: Save our Souls in Ogun State” as political jobbers who were ill-informed.
“We are here to straighten records and condemn the barbaric and untrue publication by some political jobbers in a letter titled ‘Letter to President Buhari: Save our souls in Ogun state’. The publication has revealed the writers were ill-informed acclaimed civil rights crusaders who suspiciously have traded truth and fairness for whatever cost. They incontrovertible chose to be economical with realities in Ogun State, especially the state security.
“We unanimously condemned the false alarms and claims over high rising of insecurity in Ogun state. It is far from the truth with spurious aim of condemning the uncompromising, reliable and responsive efforts of the command. We have done some findings and we have discovered that the political violence that have happened so far happened as a result of the mismanagement of their campaign process and violence from so extortionists.
“For the petition written to the presidency, we want to state clearly that our state still remain safe as ever before and all that has been written was written by unidentified elements sponsored by some unidentified individuals. it is imminent to recall that the Ogun State Police command in one of its efforts at preparing toward a peaceful conduct of 2019 elections organised a stakeholders and peace accord for all critical stakeholders unions amongst others.
“Each political party signed the peace accord document which was read to all stakeholders, the command used different forum to read the riot act and orientate the public on peaceful prior, during and post elections. What else could have been expected of the Nigerian police force other than measures that guarantees sustainable peace and maintenance of laws and order in Ogun state,” he said