A drama is unfolding in Osun as operatives of the Nigerian police, Department of State Security (DSS) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) reportedly engaged each other in what is said to be a supremacy battle.
The three agencies were said to have been at loggerheads for a while now in the state, causing panic among residents.
The lingering disharmony among the security outfits took a new twist recently after Olawale Olokode, the state Commissioner of Police, paraded some suspects over alleged kidnapping.
It is understood that one of the suspects had accused the NSCDC and DSS of connivance in kidnapping, thereby compounding the matter.
The suspect, identified as Akeem Ogunibi, who was paraded by the police for alleged kidnapping, was said to have fingered NSCDC personnel and DSS operatives in the kidnap of a bureau de change operator, Mallam Bala.
A security source told The Sun that the police commissioner arrested and detained the accused officers without informing the sister agencies.
It was gathered that the commandant of the NSCDC and the state director of DSS made extra efforts, only to discover that their officers were locked up and their mobile phones seized by the police.
A security source said the refusal of the CP to inform the sister agencies infuriated the NSCDC and DSS and they perceived the action of the police as deliberate.
The source said the police had always been in haste to parade suspects without conducting any investigation on the allegations against them.
Meanwhile, it was gathered that Bala, who was said to have been kidnapped, was arrested by the security men over a business transaction.
The Sun gathered that the suspect, Ogunibi, was a customer who had gone to challenge Bala for undermining his brother who sold a gold chain to him.
Ogunibi was said to have invited the security agencies to arrest Bala, an allegation purportedly turned to kidnapping.
Sources quoted Bala as saying, “When the security men, one of them in NSCDC uniform, came to Sabo, they said ‘you are under arrest’.”
Efforts to speak with Bala proved futile as he was said to have left the state, having discovered that the matter had caused crisis between the security agencies. His mobile phone has been switched off.
When contacted, the commandant of the NSCDC, Emmanuel Ocheja, refused to comment on the incident, saying, “necessary step is being taken.”
Though it was gathered that the officers detained have been released, Ogunibi was yet to meet with the bail condition.
But the Police Public Relations Officer, Yemisi Opalola, said the police informed NSCDC and DSS and their bosses came to the command’s office.
She said, “There is no way their bosses would have known if we didn’t inform them. When a suspect is first arrested, you may not know the person he/she is because it is not written on the head and the person is not in uniform. When a person is arrested and he didn’t wear uniform to where he went to commit the offence, nobody will know who they are. It is during investigation that they will know them.
“Also, when a person is arrested for an offence, he may want to hide his identity. They may not contact their office at that time. So, nobody can allege the police on that because the police can take anybody.”
