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Afegbua at police hqtrs, says ‘Babangida fully behind me’

By Segun Olaniyi (Abuja) and Oluwaseun Akingboye (Akure)
08 March 2018   |   2:51 am
The spokesman for former military President Ibrahim Babangida, Kassim Afegbua, yesterday reported at the Police Headquarters 48 hours after being declared wanted over the controversial press statement he issued on behalf of his principal.

Former Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida

The spokesman for former military President Ibrahim Babangida, Kassim Afegbua, yesterday reported at the Police Headquarters 48 hours after being declared wanted over the controversial press statement he issued on behalf of his principal.

Afegbua, who arrived at the Louis Edet House of the Nigeria Police Force, Abuja, at about 10:10 a.m., and accompanied by his legal team, led by his lead counsel, Kayode Ajulo, said: “The former president is fully behind me and he had been in touch with me. There’s no need for him to say anything more than he had already said.” 

He said Babangida was surprised at the declaration by the police authorities, wondering why they could do that to him as if he was a criminal.“It will even interest you to know that when I was declared wanted on Channels TV and Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), my boss, IBB, was the one who called me and said why are they declaring you wanted? Are you a criminal? And we laughed over it.

“He also asked if I was on the run and if I have been given invitation and he said, okay, that is interesting. My boss said he heard on the news that they talked about defamation of character and he asked whose character have you defamed?

“So, I am very much in touch with him and I am not doing anything out of the blues. He is a man I have been with for the past 14 years as spokesman. Even when I went to serve in my state, I was still very much in touch with him. I have said it before that I am part and parcel of him, we are family and so I don’t have any cause to worry over anything.

“I am only here personally because I was declared wanted. I am not on the run, I am not a fugitive to the law and as a responsible Nigerian, I feel it was unwise on the part of the police to declare me wanted when I have not been formally invited. So, I am here to present myself. I am here with my wife,

Afegbua, who arrived in respect of the development, was not even known by police officers on duty at the reception desk as they kept asking him to introduce himself. Even after introduction and informing them that he was Kassim Afegbua, the man declared wanted by the Force Headquarters through its spokesman, Jimoh Moshood on Monday, the police officers were still asking him, “Who declared you wanted?” “Are you on appointment?”

Ajulo, who was infuriated by the embarrassing questions, said: “Moshood was not ready to receive his client, “then everyone should go back home.” Meanwhile, when Moshood was alerted by the police officers of Afegbua’s presence at the reception, he rushed in only to give directive that journalists around should be chased away, fuming why they had come. 

“All the reporters that came here with Kassim Afegbua today did not ask for my permission,” he said. In another development, the presidential aspirant of the National Conscience Party (NCP) in the 2019 election, Dr. Thomas-Wilson Ikubese, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to refrain from repressive tendencies that can truncate democracy in the country.

In a statement made available to journalists in Akure yesterday, he flayed the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, for declaring Afegbua wanted over the statement he issued on behalf of his boss.

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