Contradictions as Amosun claims he did not hand over Ak 47 rifles

Former Ogun State governor Ibikunle Amosun Tuesday denied handing over 1000 AK 47 rifles to Ogun State Police Command hours to the end of his tenure in May.

Online news platform, Premium Times (PT), reported on Monday that the former governor handed over 1,000 AK-47 assault rifles, 1,000 bulletproof vests, and four million bullets to the police. The weapons, PT said, were acquired before the 2019 elections.

Amosun, now a senator, said the PT report was a “premeditated” smear campaign against his person.

“It is rather interesting and ironic that a routine, bona fide and patriotic disposition of the senator, Ibikunle Amosun, has been so savagely twisted in a premeditated effort by Premium Times and its sponsors,” Amosun’s spokesman Rotimi Durojaiye said in a statement.

Editor-in-chief of PT Muskilu Mojeed said the newspaper is standing by its story.

In the report, PT said the arms and ammunition were stockpiled at the Oke Mosan Government House by Amosun and were handed over to the state’s commissioner of police Bashir Makama.

PT in the report said the arms and ammunition were brought out of a secret armoury in the State House in trucks and were handed over to Makama in the governor’s bid to clear the premises of such items before Dapo Abiodun, who was then waiting to be sworn in as the governor of the state, assumed office.

Abiodun and Amosun, although belonging to the ruling All Progressives Congress, did not have a cordial relationship as the latter refused to back the former in the run-up to the elections.

Amosun supported Adekunle Akinlade of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).

PT insisted that the last-minute transfer of the weapons to the police may have happened because Amosun’s preferred candidate did not win.

The former governor’s spokesman acknowledged that his principal met Makama on May 28 – a day before the May 29 handover date – and that he handed over “security items”. He, however, said there was no hand over of arms  to the police on the said date.

“It is important to clarify that not a single AK-47 rifle was handed over at the event,” Durojaiye said.

But in a seeming contradiction in the same statement, Durojaiye said Amosun did hand over the “security items” to the police and that it was not the first time such would happen.

“It is important to stress that this was not the first time that Senator Amosun, whilst in office as governor and former Chief Security Officer of Ogun State would be handing over security assets to the Police,” Durojaiye said.

“The particular exercise of 28 May 2019 was done openly in the full glare of the public and the media to ensure accountability, guarantee transparency and judicious use of the assets.”

Contrary to Amosun’s claim, Ogun State-owned OGTV said the former governor actually claimed to have handed over 1,000 AK-47 rifles to the police. The TV station, in a news report posted on its website, corroborated PT’s investigation.

OGTV said Amosun told those at the handover ceremony that the weapons were kept at the armoury in the State House “to avoid being taken for use indiscriminately.”

A similar report was published by New Telegraph on May 29. Telegraph added that the Ogun State director of the Department of State Services David Tuksa witnessed the handover.