STOP HOUNDING APPOINTEES FOR POLITICAL REASONS, OSUN GOVT TELLS POLICE.

OSOGBO– 03/12/2025– osunstate.gov.ng

The Osun State Government has cautioned the Nigeria Police against the unwholesome practice of witch-hunting its officials to serve political purpose, noting that the core responsibility of the Police is to secure Nigerians, irrespective of political persuasions, not a tool of oppression.

In a statement signed by the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Oluomo Kolapo Alimi, the Osun State Government expressed concerns on the increasing pattern of entrenched political actors weaponizing the Police to intimidate and harass officials as the 2026 election draw closer, stressing that the police in Osun state in cohort with some desperate politicians are doing everything to criminalise officials serving in the Adeleke administration through phantom petitions.

Oluomo Alimi urged the Inspector-General of the Police (IGP and the Police Service Commission (PSC) to beam its searchlight to Osun state over the unprofessional conducts of its officials, pointing that weaponizing police to serve political purpose is at variance with the job entrusted on the service by the Constitution and other enabling laws.

“As a Government who has shown serious commitment to law and order, we find it alarming that officials in the government are being hounded by the Police for political reasons. In a democracy as ours, holding political beliefs should not be a crime, and that is why we find it totally unacceptable for the Police to be targeting our officials on frivolous petitions,” Oluomo Alimi noted.

“At a time like this when the Police is expected to be focused on taming insecurity and keeping Nigerians safe and secure, it is distasteful to note that some officers in the Osun State Command are running political errands, acting outside their core responsibilities to shutdown voices deemed to be critical of those behind their acts.”

Oluomo Alimi maintained that the Nigeria Police exists for all Nigerians, and as such must not allow itself to be a tool of oppression for the same citizens it was meant to secure, emphasising the need for the Police to maintain neutrality in political matters in the interest of the nation.

“Very recently, several officials in this government were invited in what was clearly politically motivated witch-hunt in order to coerce them to dump the administration or silence them. The Police job is to secure Nigerians, not to be pushed around by certain politicians for selfish purposes. If anyone feel offended by the opinion of others, the appropriate forum provided by the law is the court, not the Police that is already overwhelmed by the challenges of insecurity,” he said.

Oluomo urged the Police authority to purge itself of compromised officers whose conducts portrays them more as politicians than men of the Police they ought to be, warning that as much as its officials remain law abiding, it would not hesitate the option provided by the law to safeguard them from intimidation, harassment and political oppression.

Signed:
Oluomo Kolapo Alimi,
Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment,
Osun state.