Olaitan Oyerinde: Reps to probe alleged police misconduct

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG, OKEY NDIRIBE & EMMA OVUAKPORIE

…As NLC wants IGP to reopen investigation
ABUJA — NIGERIA Labour Congress, NLC, yesterday, asked Inspector General of Police, IGP, to reopen investigation into the gruesome murder of its Deputy General Secretary,  Olaitan Oyerinde.

Oyerinde until he was murdered in his residence in Benin City, was the Principal Private Secretary to the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

NLC said it was disturbed at the seeming silence on the investigation of the murder of Oyerinde, claiming “We are convinced the police know who Olaitan Oyerinde’s killers are, and are buying time, believing that soon Nigerians will put the murder behind them, and become uninterested in the search for the murderers.”

In a statement through its President, Abdulwaheed Omar, NLC called on the IGP to immediately investigate the allegation of complacency leveled against the Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG, handling the case, and sanction him if found guilty, even if it meant dismissal to protect the image of the police.

Late Olaitan Oyerinde

Congress demanded that the police got the actual culprits prosecuted and punished in accordance with the law as Oyerinde’s heinous murder was not just of interest to it but to the entire Nigerian people who felt unsafe if a young and highly talented man could be so gruesomely murdered while the police seemed helpless simply because its top officer had compromised the force

Also yesterday, the House of Representatives  mandated two of its committees to probe into the allegation of professional misconduct in police investigation of the murder of Oyerinde.

This was adopted in a motion sponsored by Pally Iriase, ACN, Edo State. The House ruled that the investigation which would be conducted jointly by the House Committees on Police Affairs and Justice should be concluded within two weeks.

The two committees were directed to determine the veracity or otherwise of the allegation of cover-up and professional misconduct leveled against the Police in its own investigation.

Edo state Governor last week publicly accused the Police, particularly DIG Peter Gana, of alleged cover-up and gross professional misconduct in the investigation of the murder of his aide.