The Osun State Government has denied an allegation from the All Progressives Congress (APC) that the Chief Security Officer to Governor Ademola Adeleke was responsible for the arrest of a Facebook user who directly threatened the life of the governor.
Oluomo Kolapo Alimi, Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, therefore, urged the public and the police authorities to know that the issue is not about politics but about the life of a governor, saying “No threat to life should be taken lightly.”
In a statement on Friday in Osogbo, the government said Osun APC is now guilty of an offence by giving false information to the police as the offence and arrest was conducted at Ibadan with police operatives stationed in Oyo State.
The statement reads further: “If the Press Statement credited to the Osun APC on the arrest and arraignment of one Ifedolapo Gafar, threatening and cyberbullying Osun State Governor in a viral video, was truly signed by the Osun APC Chairman, then the leadership of Osun APC needs to be educated that giving false information to the police is a crime.
“The self-contradictory press statement is a compendium of blatant lies.
“Contrary to the spurious allegation that the man was arrested by the Chief Security Officer to the Osun State Governor and other eight police officers from the Osun Government House, the man was arrested by Officers of SWAT attached to FCID, Alagbon, following the approval of a Petition written by the Office of Special Adviser to the Osun State Governor on Legal Matters to the AIG in charge of FCID, Alagbon, Lagos.
“He was arrested around 4pm on Monday 4th August , 2025 and arraigned in Court on the following Tuesday. The police officers were so professional that they did not detain him longer than the law allows and decided to arraign him in Ibadan where he lives.
“It is worthy of note that the complaint lodged against the suspect (now defendant) bothers on the security/life of His Excellency , Governor Adeleke and as such, it directly affects the office of the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the Governor, hence his involvement in the formal complaint to the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of FSCID, Alagbon.
“God forbid any threat being carried out against the Governor, it is the CSO that would be questioned and queried first.
“In accordance with the police internal procedure, the FSCID officers first went to the Challenge Divisional Police Headquarters, Ibadan and notified that they wanted to carry out an arrest within the Division before proceeding to arrest him.
“After his arrest, they went back to the Division to notify them that they had carried out the arrest. They never asked the DPO to detain him for them as they have their own operational base (office) in Ibadan.
“Immediately after the documentation of his arrest at the Division, they took him to their own office from where they brought him to Court the following day for arraignment.
“If the CSO to the Governor and his officers at the Government House had wanted to arrest Ifedolapo themselves as being baselessly and mischievously claimed by the APC, they wouldn’t have written a formal petition to the AIG at Alagbon, whose officers eventually arrested Ifedolapo.
“Instead of Osun APC to organize an urgent training for their data boys and adults on the difference between criticisms/opposition and criminal absurdities and tendencies mistaken for criticisms and to caution their party members against cyberbullying and issuing threats to people under the pretext of doing opposition; they are cooking up stories and flagrant falsehoods to misinform the general public, mislead the Inspector-General of Police and encourage their members in unlawful condemnable conducts”, the government noted.
While urging social media users to be mindful of the law, the government said slander, libel, sedition and other criminal offences cannot be overlooked as freedom comes with responsibility, calling on the police authorities to ignore the false alarm raised by the Osun APC.
