Demand Transfer of Commissioner GwanduThe face-off between Edo State Police Command and State Owned Ambrose Alli University yesterday deepens with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU , Ekpoma Branch describing the recent outburst by the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Mr Haliru Gwandu as a macabre dance aimed at discrediting the reputation of the Ambrose Alli University and the hardwork of its lecturers.Briefing newsmen yesterday the Chairman Ekpoma Branch of ASUU, Monday Igbafen said the CP is trying to justify the brutalization of the Dean of Law, Professor Sunday Edeko who they also forced to write a statement and an apology letter.The ASUU chairman flayed the Police CP for transferring ASP Ojo who led the anti-cultism team and demanded to know the names of the lecturers claimed to have been arrested, where the dead bodies or human skulls were allegedly recovered and if they were students or indigenes of Ekpoma town.Igbafen stated that it was unprofessional for the Commissioner Gwandu to allege that some lecturers were arrested with firearms without bringing it to the knowledge of the management for redress.Also, he condemned the commissioner for not resorting in diplomacy in resolving the matter between the lecturer and his men but toe the path of lies and blackmail and painted a fairy picture of what didnt happened.Furthermore, Igbafen explained that the only case that investigation brought to the knowledge of the leadership of ASUU was that of a lecturer who was arrested with fire arms in February and was released after presenting the licences to the fire arms because he was a member of the vigilante group in Ekpoma.Igbafen however noted that there were no report to the university against the said lecturer, he was not paraded, he didnt appear in court but did what he described as business with the police and was released.Igbafen therefore called on the Assistant Inspector General of Police inchage of Zone 5 Mr Abubarka Muhammad and the Inspector General of Police, to transfer the Edo CP and launch a proper investigation to unravel the misconceptions fed to the public by Mr Haliru Gwandu.According to Igbafen, While ASUU AAU Ekpoma is not in the position to vouch for any member on issues bothering on member of secret cults, it seems to us that the commissioner of police has a record or register of members of secret cults in the university as evident in his conclusion given his so-called resolve yo deal decisively with cult members in the university.If this is genuinely the case, ASUU would have been willing to collaborate with him to completely stamp out cultism in the university. ASUU is not aware that any lecturer was arrested for possession of firearms or being a member of any secret cult group, he said.He continued, It is a calculated attempt to bring AAU to public odium. It is a macabre dance meant to rubbish the reputation of the university and its hardworking staff. In fact, this story is a cleaver attempt by the commissioner to cover up a lingering case of unwarranted arrest and unjustifiable brutalisation of the Dean faculty of law, Professor Sunday Edeko by men of the so-called special anti-cult squad which is said to be the brain child of the police.Rather than do the needful by applying deplomacy and calling a peace meeting of stakeholders in the university and the police to address the problem at hand, the commissioner decided to toe the path of lies, dishonor and blackmail claiming that his men have arrested some lecturers and professor of out university.As a union, our members used to take police briefing as serious business buy from this macabre dance we know better now and have resolved to take any briefing by the police with a pinch of salt.How and why should a police officer of the rank of Commissioner of police descend so low to fabricate monkey tales about the arrest of phantom cultists and gunrunners when he knows that the issue before him is just to investigate and tell the world whether his killer gang in Ekpoma was right or wrong in the unjust brutalization of Prof Edeko and other innocent young men and women in Ekpoma and environs.It would be recalled that the commissioner of Police Mr Haliru Gwandu had during the week disclosed that some lecturers were arrested for with firearms while the remains of 16 beheaded students were allegedly found in a site in Ekpoma, Esan West Local Government area of the state.
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