By Rotimi Ojomoyela
Ado-Ekiti
Ekiti state government has petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Ibrahim Idris, calling for the immediate arrest of the state chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Jide Awe, former member of the House of Assembly, Hon. Kehinde Boluwade, and 13 others that were wanted for alleged murder.
The APC chairman and four other members of the APC members, namely: Faboro John, Aniramu Basiru, Falayi Busuyi and Owonifari Sefiu are wanted for their alleged involvement in the murder of Ayo Murphy Jeje and Mrs Julianah Adewumi as well as attempted murder of Chief Clement Awoyelu, Gbenga Ogundana Adewumi and Chief Boluwaji Adewumi (aka Oba Odo) in Erinjiyan-Ekiti, Ekiti state, on March 30, 2013.
Ekiti state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Owoseni Ajayi, in a letter to the IGP dated July 8, 2016, and copied to the Attorney General of the Federation, National Human Rights Commission and the Ekiti state Commissioner of Police decried the refusal of the police to arrest the accused persons despite several requests.
The letter read in part: “I write in respect of the prosecution of series of murder and attempted murder cases pending before the High Courts of Ekiti state wherein the non-availability of Defendants has almost frustrated the prosecutions of these cases despite several requests by my office to the Ekiti state Command of the Nigeria Police.
“The Ekiti state has requested the Nigeria Police, Ekiti state Command, to effect the arrests of these culprits, but instead of effecting the arrests, the Police has refused and/or neglected to effect the arrests on the ground that such arrests should not be made except with the approval of the Police Force Headquarters, Abuja.”
