By Richard Akintade
A civil rights group, the Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEOS) has raised an alarm on the effort of the immediate past Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in the state, Mr. Ajibola Bashiru to frustrate the ongoing investigation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged illegal acquiring of properties worth N2.2billion with public funds while serving as a public officer , by employing the service of men of Department of State Security(DSS) for the hatchet job.
The group raised the alarm against the incessant calls of its Chairman, Comrade Adeniyi, Alimi Sulaiman by a DSS officer, Mr. Kunle Shofola with phone number-08168933030 on the directive of the State Director of the DSS over the subject matter, informing the rights activist to report to their State headquarters in Osogbo, as part of ploy to prevent Comrade Sulaiman from honour the invitation of the EFCC to endorse the Petition Letter and all the allegations of financial crimes contained therein against Mr. Bashiru.
However, the rights group has reported the matter to the President Muhammadu Buhari, Director-General of Department of State Security (DSS) and other concerned authorities to call their officers to order by allowing EFCC which saddle with the responsibility of investigating
financial crimes in Nigeria to do its constitutional duties on the
matter without illegal interference from sister organization(DSS).
According to the Petition Letter dated Wednesday, 19th December, 2018, entitled “The petition against Osun State Director of (SSS) and one of his officers, Mr. Kunle Shofola with phone number (08168933030) over conspiracy with Osun ex-commissioner, Mr. Ajibola Bashiru and his lawyer by planning to obstruct the EFCC investigation on the alleged illegal acquired N2.2billion properties with public funds and plan to illegally arrest the EFCC complainant and Chairman,
Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEOS) as a way to sabotage the effort of the anti-graft agency and President Muhammadu Buhari on the war against corruption” and signed by Comrade Sulaiman, which copies were made available to newsmen, warned the men of State Security Service (SSS) against obstruction of the EFCC investigation on the said matter.
The Petition reads;”On the faithful day of Thursday 13th, December, 2018 at around 2:59 pm and Tuesday, 18th December, 2018 at around 3.50pm, this phone Number (0816893303) put a call to our Chairman’s MTN line (08038591504),requesting him(Sulaiman) to report to the
Gbongan-Ibadan road,Osogbo office of the security agency on Thursday 20th, December, 2018 in respect of CSCEOS’ Petition Letter to the anti-graft agency on Mr. Ajibola Bashiru’s alleged N2.2properties.
“Even, to our own surprise, apart From Section (15) subsection (5) of the amended 1999 Constitution, Our organization and its chairman still have the constitutional fundamental rights to exposed and report any corrupt Practices and its perpetrators for the reputable anti-graft agency like EFCC and other anti-graft bodies that are saddled with the constitutional responsibility of investigating financial crimes without any fear or favour in consonance with the EFCC Act, ICPC Act, Terrorism and Money Laundering Act, Freedom of information Act, National Human Rights Commission Act, Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP)Act, Police Act, Electoral and INEC Guidelines , Criminal Code Cap “C38” Law Including the “FRN” (1999) Constitution as amended with other relevant Laws of the Federation.
“Honestly speaking sir, it is very sad and embarrassing of having this kind of attitude in the hand of the State Security Services (SSS) official(s), who supposed to be in the position for the enforcement of law and order, to seriously assist President Muhammadu Buhari and the country as a whole for the total abrogation of corruption and corrupt practices, and to quickly start their proper investigation on how to effect the arrest of corrupt element(s) by handing him or her over to anti-graft agency/agent(s) for serious interrogation and subsequent
prosecution of the suspect after the conclusion of the investigation on the allegations leveled against such person.
“It is our believe that there would not be smoke without fire and we got to know this hint through officer Kunle Shofola that used to call our Chairman to report to the State Headquarters of the DSS in Osogbo, were hinged on the CSCEOS’ Petition Letter to the EFCC on the allegation of N2.2 billion Properties acquired by Mr. Ajibola Bashiru
while serving the State as Commissioner ,where we discovered that the DSS has been the tool to be used to obstruct the ongoing investigation of the anti-graft body(EFCC) on the subject matter.
“We also learnt that Mr. Bashiru and the State Director of DSS had concluded arrangement to arrest illegally and subsequent charge our Chairman for criminal allegations through Bashiru’s wife, Magistrate Habibat Ajibola Bashiru and her friends in Osun State Magistrate Division as a way to prevent Comrade Adeniyi, Alimi Sulaiman to honour
the invitation of the EFCC to report to the anti-graft agency office for the endorsement of the group’s Petition Letter to the EFCC with other new discovery of damning evidences on the subject matter”.
It therefore alleged that the Security officials from the State
Security Services have been doing hatchet job for Bashiru and his co-travelers to clamp down the reputable Civil Society organization by employing some DSS officers to carry out the job for him(Bashiru) and their names and phone numbers are; Ola-08024620507),Tunji-08067560995),Alhaja-08034182814, Alex-08166218057 and these numbers-(08132225003 & 08038110375) without mentioning their names.
“Enough is enough and law is no respecter of anybody” he concluded.
