Ile-Arugbo: Who ordered use of live bullets against aged women?
PDP petitions Nat’l Human Right Commission
Probe still ongoing – Police
By Mumini AbdulKareem and Ahmed Ajikobi
Who approved the use of live ammunitions to be fired against harmless and defenseless aged women in Kwara during the demolition of Ile Arugbo by the State Government?
The question has remained unanswered more than ten days since the incident took place, but the police said its investigation on the matter is still ongoing.
The Police Public Relation Officer (PRO), DSP Ajayi Okasanmi, while responding to the issue in a telephone chat on Sunday, said “Investigation on the matter is still on; it is only after we have concluded that we can come out with our position on the matter”.
The response of the police image maker is coming on the heels of a similar statement by the Kwara State command that “No personnel was deployed for demolition exercise”.
Then who were the police and security operatives involved in the demolition exercise and from where were they deployed to carry out such criminal activity against unarmed and largely weak and aged women?
The act, described by many stakeholders in the state as worrisome and a lack of respect for the sanctity of human lives by the perpetrators has been a subject of disagreement between the police and officials of government.
A top officials of the government who don’t doesn’t want to be named because of the security implication of the issue in the state national levels said the security officials were provided by the state government but declined to give further details asking this medium to “investigate” the issue with other security agencies.
“The government provided those that carried out the demolition with security. But as regards the statement of the police, you can to go to other security agencies and find out”, the official added.
During incident that occurred in the wee hours of Thursday, January 2, 2020 when the demolition was effected, scores of the women and youth who had kept vigil at the facility were reportedly dispersed with live ammunition and teargas by security operatives who accompanied officials to supervise the demolition.
The Minister of State for Transport, Gbemisola Saraki in statement she personally signed called on the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar Adamu to call the State Commissioner of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to order over the issue.
According to the minister and a senior member of the APC, “using security agencies and live ammunition to settle political and personal scores is not what the Buhari Administration is about.
“Thursday 2nd of January 2020, the Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, gave orders to the Police to open fire on aged women, at the contested welfare home, popularly known as “Ile Arugbo” (Home for Aged), owned by my father, Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki…
But after the events … when the aged women were tear gassed and shot at in the wee hours of the morning (3:00AM), I do not want my silence to be misconstrued, as mischief makers have used that silence to attribute false statements allegedly made by me.
The level of force and violence that the Governor chose to adopt was totally unwarranted. What resistance to protest justifies firing live ammunition and tear gassing old women? Even my own personal home was not left out of the attack as numerous empty bullet shell casings and dispersed tear gas cannisters were found inside my home”, she added.
But the police in an earlier statement had said it will get to the root of the matter following the minister’s accusation adding that it did not deploy any official to the scene.
The statement by the Kwara Police Public Relations Officer, Dsp Okasanmi Ajayi, stated that “no policeman deployed for anticrime duties during the Christmas and New Year celebrations fired a single shot of ammunition or canister during this period”.
“The Command wishes to make it clear that as part of its safety and crime prevention strategies in ensuring a hitch free celebrations during the Christmas and the new year festivities, Police patrol vans were stationed at strategic points across the state, including Iloffa road GRA, Ilorin on the 31/12/2019 being the new year eve. As was witnessed by all and sundry, the Christmas and New Year celebrations were generally peaceful throughout the state. Our anti crime deployment during this period has nothing to do with any demolition exercise in the state.”
According to him, “It is therefore shocking to the Commissioner of Police to hear the news of policemen shooting life ammunitions and firing teargas canisters at the scene of a demolition exercise.
“For the purpose of emphasis, the Command wishes to immediately dispel the insinuations that the men reported to have been firing indiscriminately during the demolition exercise were deployed by the Kwara state police command. No policeman was deployed by the command for any demolition exercise anywhere in the state and no policeman deployed for anticrime duties during the Christmas and New Year celebrations fired a single shot of ammunition or canister during this period.
“Consequently, the Commissioner of Police, Kwara state Ag CP Kayode Egbetokun has immediately directed a full scale investigation into this allegation with a view to determining the veracity of this report, the identities of the purported policemen, where they came from and on whose authority they were deployed”.
