Ogun Police expose online medium’s mischievous report against herdsmen
The Police in Ogun State has exposed the lies in an online report saying about 200 acres of farm belonging to Bisrod Farm Limited has been set ablaze by suspected herdsmen on the 26th of January 2018.
The state police command in a statement by its Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Abimbola Oyeyemi, copy of which was sent to The DEFENDER, on Tuesday.
Oyeyemi in the statement said the command would have wished not to dignify the “mischievous and highly inciting report” with a response but that it had to expose the lies to avoid situation whereby lies allowed to be told repeatedly becoming truth.
He said and owner of the farm also testified to the fact that there was nothing like setting the farm ablaze by herdsmen as what happened on the farm site was in nowhere suggesting any fire incident.
The statement read in full: “The attention of Ogun State Police Command has been drawn to an online report that about 200 acres of farm belonging to Bisrod Farm Limited has been set ablaze by suspected herdsmen on the 26th of January 2018.
“The command would have wished not to dignify the mischievous and highly inciting report with a response, but if a lie is being told repeatedly, innocent members of the public might be taking it to be the truth hence the need to put the record straight as follows.
“On the 26th of January 2018 at about 1:30pm, one Bimbo Adisa ‘m’ the manager to Chief Bisi Rodipe of Bisrod Furniture Limited lodged a complaint of malicious damage against some herdsmen that the herdsmen grazed their cattle and caused some damage at Bisrod Farm.
“Upon the report, the Area Commander Ijebu-Ode ACP Funso Ajao led a team of Policemen to the farm in order to have on the spot assessment of the damage and to effect the arrest of the culprits. But before getting to the farm, the herdsmen have run away with their cattle.
“Proactive strategy was immediately adopted to cause the arrest of the herdsmen by calling on Seriki Fulani Ijebu-Ode to assist in trailing and apprehending the herdsmen.
“The operation is still ongoing as the stakeholders and task force who are always involved in resolving such issues are not resting on their oars to ensure the apprehension of the culprits.
“The Command also wish to inform the public that our investigation so far revealed that there is nothing like setting ablaze of the said farm and that Chief Bisi Rodipe ‘f’ the M.D Bisrod Furniture and his manager Mr Bimbo Adisa have refuted the online publication about his farm being set ablaze by the herdsmen.
“The farm has been visited severally on the 27th, 28th and 29th of January by the Police led by the Area Commander as well as the representatives of the State Government led by Alhaji Olayinka Balogun, a retired Commissioner of Police, who is the special consultant to the Governor on security, and what was discovered was the malicious damage on some flower trees along the foot path on the farm.
“The Command hereby wish to advise members of the public against misrepresentation of fact and inciting publication on social media as this may have grave security implication on the society at large. Members of the public and the good people of Ogun State should continue to sustain their trust and confidence in the Police and promptly report any crime or incident to them instead of going online to misrepresent the fact.”
