Police arrest Oyo lawmaker, 40 others at PDP rally

IT was a bad day for a member of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Honourable Jimoh Fadipe, on Wednesday, as he was molested and arrested along with about 40 other persons by the police for allegedly attending a political rally, fully armed with dangerous weapons.

Fadipe is a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legislator, representing the Ibadan South-East constituency in the state legislature and he is already campaigning to return to the Assembly for a second term.

The PDP chapters in the 11 local government areas in Ibadan had organised the rally, which was held at Mapo Hall, Ibadan, as part of the preparations of the party for the forthcoming general election.

However, before the arrival of the state governor, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, at the venue of the rally, the police, apparently acting on a tip-off, embarked on a stop and search exercise and, in the process, found several guns, including four pump action double barrel guns, pistols and charms in four vehicles.

Promptly, the cars - a Mercedez Benz salon (BC 254 EPE); Nissan Xterra Jeep (OYHA 09 A); Hyundai Accent salon (FP 682 KJA) and a Nissan bus (AW 69 BDG) - were impounded by the Police, while about 40 people, said to be loyalists of Fadipe, were also arrested and taken to the Mapo Police Station, Ibadan.

The lawmaker, from whom two English pistols were said to have been confiscated, was arrested while seeking to effect the release of his ‘boys’, an attempt which infuriated the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the police station, Mr. Francis Ojomo, who immediately ordered that he should be arrested and detained at the station.

Meanwhile, addressing the mammoth crowd and PDP members at the rally, Governor Alao-Akala, said that his administration had fulfilled all its electoral promises, maintaining that the PDP would retain its position as the ruling party in the state after the 2011 elections.

Promising not to let the people of the state down, he carpeted those who were opposed to him as he declared that nobody could frustrate his administration in its quest to improve the living condition of the people.