Secret Police, DSS Invite Ex-Kogi Commissioner Over Comment On Sheikh Gumi’s Visit To Okunland

Secret Police, DSS Invite Ex-Kogi Commissioner Over
Comment On Sheikh Gumi’s Visit To Okunland
According to him, the secret police asked him to show up at
its office in Lokoja, the state capital, on Tuesday.
A former commissioner for education in Kogi State,
Oluwayomi David Atte, has revealed that the Department
of State Services (DSS) invited him over his recent
comment on the visit of
Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, to Okun land.
According to him, the secret police asked him to show
up at its office in Lokoja, the state capital, on Tuesday.
Atte said his decision to inform the public about the
invitation was to keep people abreast of happenings,
given the DSS’s record of hounding those with views that
oppose the President Muhammadu-led administration.
Buttressing his point, the ex-commissioner recalled the
experience of Obadiah Mailafia, a former deputy governor
of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who died not long
after his encounter with the DSS.
Atte wondered why the DSS did not invite Gumi, who has
been holding meetings with armed bandits and foreign
Fulanis in various states across the country.
The former commissioner said the secret police and
other security agencies ought to have dissipated similar
energy they are using to invite him to deal with issues
raised and tackle the insecurity in Okun land.
Atte recounted that in the past few years, Fulani people
from foreign countries have taken over several
communities in the state, killing people and displacing
several others.
The former commissioner said his comment on Gumi’s
visit to meet with foreign Fulani in the state was based on
grapevine sources.
He said: “I have been invited to the DSS State office in
Lokoja slated for Tuesday, 7th December 2021 at 10 am
“The DSS has not formally accused or charged me for
anything. The issue of my statements about Gumi’s visit
to Okunland and our insistence that we need to rise and
defend ourselves came from the grapevine.
“I made the decision to inform Okun people and relevant
stakeholders of the invitation by the DSS as a
precautionary measure. The nation is not as it used to be,
and organs of government in Nigeria tend to show more
loyalty to regimes than to the Constitution and the
People.
“They have shown over and over that the survival of a
regime is paramount to them, hence, the lives and
welfare of citizens of Nigeria have become secondary. So
anybody, perceived to even just think differently from the
powers they serve, can be wasted or destroyed in the line
of duty of security forces. Fresh in my memory is the
hounding of my personal friend, the late Obadiah
Mailafia, by security agents, soon after which he died.
“Could this happen to me? Possibly, but not necessarily.
With Nigeria’s security agencies, one can no longer be
sure.
So I decided to let stakeholders know, just to be aware
that they asked me to come.
“Since I have not been charged or accused, please let us
keep calm and hear what they say. It has to concern
what Okun People say about their safety and welfare,
which I echo.
“Okun People have lived peacefully with Fulanis for
generations. In the last six years, an influx of foreign
Fulani into Okunland has taken place with disastrous
consequences for our People. We watched with bated
breath as they swept through Adamawa, Taraba, Plateau,
Benue, Kaduna, leaving behind a trail of bloodshed,
massacres, destruction of farms, properties and
communities. It is in public view that no concerted effort
to stop them was made by the government.
“Then they came into Kogi and Southern Nigeria causing
unprecedented insecurity. In Okun land, many areas have
been occupied illegally by foreign Fulani, (foreign to us
and Nigeria. We encountered them in Okun land and they
confessed to coming from Mali in one instance). They
have settled on our land, without our permission. From
there they kill our people, machete them on their farms,
destroy their crops, kidnap them and make us pay a
ransom.
“Our land is unsafe to move about. Chief Osadumo is
dead, kidnapped from a church. Hon. Serebe was shot
dead by Fulanis on the farm, a vigilante officer was shot
and killed near Okedayo. Our Commissioner Omofaiye
was shot and Fulanis kidnapped people in Ikoyi last week.
The last three regained freedom three days ago after
ransom was paid for them.
“Last Thursday, Elder Ologun was shot dead in Mopa.
Widows and farmers have been driven from the farms in
Okun land by Fulanis. These are just a few samples. Our
very peaceful life in Okun land has been disrupted. On top
of all these, Sheikh Gumi came on a solidarity visit to the
Fulani people in Okun land who are illegal occupiers of
our land. He did not visit our key traditional rulers. Who
can do that in the North? It was a slap on our face and a
declaration that they can do what they want on our land.
“Now the numerous statements of Gumi about bandits,
his clear sentiments of support for bandits, visiting them
in their secret camps and taking photographs with them,
heavily armed, are all in the public domain for Nigerians
to see. And the government gives him free rein. Which
community in Nigeria hears that Gumi is coming to visit
Fulani (or bandits?) in their area that will not be
alarmed?”
The former commissioner said if opportuned during his
visit to the DSS office, he would ask probing questions
about his invitation and the secret police’s seeming
support of Gumi.
He added: “Which is of more concern to them, the
suffering, killing, kidnapping and destruction of Okun
people’s means of livelihood or their discomfort that we
complained of being unprotected by the government we
elected?
“Is the protection of Gumi’s image more important to the
government than the safety of Okun People?
“In all the deaths, injuries, kidnappings, etc. inflicted on
Okun People in the last 6 years, where were the Police
and DSS to help rescue and defend our People?
“Will the security agencies in the State and each local
government area say they do not know where the killer
and kidnapping Fulanis are? Have they sought
information from the communities and have they acted
on such information to thwart killings, kidnappings or
even rescued the kidnapped in Okun land?
Answers to these questions will shed light on the
priorities of our security agencies who are charged with
protecting us.”