Tension mounted in the Ondo state capital over the weekend after a team of policemen, led by the state Commissioner of Police, Bolaji Salami, prevented the state deputy governor, Agboola Ajayi, from leaving government house after he resigned his membership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and defected to the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). A video recording of the confrontation between Ajayi and Salami has gone viral on social media.
Ajayi was barred from leaving his official quarters with some vehicles on Saturday night by a team of policemen, led by Salami, acting on “orders from above” but Governor Rotimi Akeredolu was quick to distance himself from the public embarrassment, saying he did not order police to take any such action.
Sources told Huhuonline.com that Ajayi tendered his resignation letter at the APC secretariat in Apoi Ward 2, Ese Odo LGA, before heading to the PDP secretariat in the same ward where he announced his defection to the party and obtained his party membership card.
He told reporters at the scene that everybody knew why he dumped the APC; a tacit reference to the frosty relationship between him and Akeredolu that had hit rock bottom as the governor faces a tough re-election primary. Ajayi is said to contest the PDP gubernatorial primary where he might likely face-off with Akeredolu in the general election should the two men win their respective primary elections.
In reaction to the confrontation between Ajayi and the police, the PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said Saturday’s face-off between Ajayi and Salami, allegedly at the behest of APC, had exposed the desperation in the ruling party; saying the APC and the police cannot stop what “the imminent mass defection from the fizzling APC to the PDP.”
The PDP said: “The APC is unnerved because Nigerians are no longer ready to stomach the deception and lies of 2015 as well as the impunity, political brigandage and the electoral fraud of 2019. It was therefore a natural national course for democrats in the APC, having realized that the party is in trouble, to leave the APC with their supporters.” The PDP admonished the police and other security agencies not allow themselves to be used as cannon fodder by the APC for their self-serving political ends.
The altercation raised fundamental issues of law as observers questioned whether Ajayi resigning from the APC amounted to him resigning his office as the elected deputy governor of the state. Flanked by two members of the Edo state House of Assembly, Festus Akingbaso and Rasheed Elegbeleye, Ajayi was told by the Chief Security Officer (CSO) that he could not leave Government House with his official vehicles, even though he had not resigned his position as deputy governor.
Ajayi however insisted that he would not leave the gate and go back to his official quarters unless they allow him to leave with his official and personal vehicles because he was still the duly elected deputy governor of Ondo state; who was now a member of the PDP. As the stand-off persisted, the police boss, Salami arrived the scene but could not defuse the situation. In the view of the CSO, Ajayi was no longer the deputy governor; hence the CSO insisted that because it was past midnight, Ajayi should return to his office yesterday to remove his personal belongings as government property has to be separated from those owned by him, including vehicles.
Ajayi reportedly countered that he wanted to remove his official vehicles out of the Government House because he was no longer felt secure on the premises. He disclosed that political thugs have drafted to attack him and vandalize his property once he declared for PDP.
The tense situation degenerated into a shouting match after Salami told Ajayi that he could not leave with his official vehicles. Salami was quoted as saying: “We are not saying you should not go out. Since you are defecting, even your letter was brought to me in my office this evening that you are doing it (defecting) on Monday. What government is saying is that you cannot go out with official vehicles.”
But the deputy governor said: “Are you not a police officer, a senior security officer? If I am leaving a political party, what is your concern about that? Are you an APC chairman? Are you the PDP chairman? Do you know how many hours I have spent here? I don’t understand that I cannot move with vehicles officially attached to me. I personally paid for this vehicle (referring to one of the vehicles) not even government; may be, you don’t know.”
However, reacting to the allegation that the governor was behind the incident, Akeredolu’s Chief Press Secretary, Segun Ajiboye, said the position of the government on the matter was clear. “What the governor said was that he cannot go out of the Government House at that hour. It was around 12 midnight. What the government said was that inventory of everything in the Government House must be taken to separate personal property from government-owned.”
On his part, Salami, in a statement by Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Tee -Leo Ikoro, said the command would never allow lawlessness in the state against laid-down policing rules. The commissioner described the video circulating on the social media on his confrontation with Ajayi, as an attempt to foment trouble in the state.
He explained that he only came to the scene when his officers and men could not broker peace between the aides of the governor and that of the deputy governor over the number of cars the deputy governor would drive out at the time.
Salami said his presence at the scene was to calm frayed nerves, not escalate the situation. “Having listened to the reason for the misunderstanding, I advised both sides to come to terms, a condition they both agreed. Though I vowed to police Ondo State and its people with humility, I will not allow the ego and sentiment of any individual dictate what form of policing style I should use.”
