Osun State Assembly Speaker, Adewale Egbedun, has rejected the police’s account of the arrest of the Secretary to the State Government, Teslim Igbalaye, describing it as an act of personal retaliation by the state’s police commissioner.
Egbedun accused Commissioner Ibrahim Gotan of ordering Igbalaye’s arrest after the SSG laughed at him following a booing incident at an INEC stakeholders’ meeting.
In a signed statement issued Thursday, the Speaker said he was present at the meeting alongside the Deputy Governor and Igbalaye when the incident unfolded. He said Gotan was jeered by members of the public while addressing the gathering, and turned toward their direction as he returned to his seat.
“We all witnessed the unfortunate moment when Commissioner Gotan was booed while on the podium by citizens of Osun State. Immediately he returned to his seat, he looked directly towards us. At that moment, the SSG laughed,” Egbedun said.
He called the development an abuse of power that should worry Nigerians.
The Speaker said his suspicion was raised when he saw Gotan make a series of phone calls immediately after the incident. “From what I saw, I turned to the SSG and said, ‘The Commissioner of Police has just ordered your arrest,'” he stated.
Minutes later, he said, Igbalaye got a call informing him that police officers were waiting at his residence. The SSG left the event immediately, leaving Egbedun and the Deputy Governor behind.
SSG Says He Was Invited Over Recovered Cash, Voter Cards
Egbedun said Igbalaye later told him he had been invited to the State CID over allegations that police recovered ₦4 million and two voter cards from his residence, items allegedly belonging to party members who had held a meeting on his compound.
“I honestly do not understand how such an allegation justified inviting, or attempting to arrest, a public official of his standing,” Egbedun said.
The Speaker insisted the sequence of events contradicted the police’s official explanation and again described the arrest as an abuse of power that every patriotic Nigerian should be concerned about.
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