Blessing Bello, Reporting
MEMBERS of the National Assembly and the Osun State House of Assembly belonging to the Accord Party have called for the urgent redeployment of the state’s Commissioner of Police, Mr Ibrahim Gothan, accusing him of partisanship and bias less than two months before the governorship election scheduled for 15 August.
The lawmakers, speaking through the Accord National and State Assembly Caucus – which comprises seven National Assembly members and 25 state legislators – made the demand during a press conference in Osogbo on Friday.
Addressing journalists, the Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Olumide Egbedun, alleged that Mr Gothan’s continued posting in the state risked undermining the credibility and integrity of the upcoming poll.
“On account of the foregoing, we hereby call on the Inspector General of Police, Mr Olatunji Disu, to immediately redeploy the Osun State Commissioner of Police, Mr Ibrahim Gothan, who has shown himself partisan, highly compromised and incapable of providing effective security support for the people of Osun State,” Mr Egbedun said.
The Speaker also called for “the immediate arrest and prosecution of persons linked with the various crimes perpetrated against members and supporters of the Accord in various parts of Osun state, especially in the last three months”.
He cited a series of violent incidents, including the brutal murder of Mr Kolade Eluyera, an Accord member in Irewole Local Government Area, just weeks ago. On 3 June 2026, the party’s chairman for Osogbo Local Government, Hon. Asimiyu Ajibola, was shot multiple times by armed assailants and remains hospitalised fighting for his life.
“The only crime of those who were most recently shot by the APC thugs in Ile-Ife, Owode-Ede and Osogbo was that they wore branded caps of the Accord,” Mr Egbedun claimed.
He added that the incidents formed part of a “growing pattern of violence” that had generated fear and anxiety across the state. “Regrettably, the police in Osun state appears a willing accomplice in the execution of the unlawful plans which have begun to unfold,” he said.
The Speaker expressed frustration over the lack of progress in police investigations. “We find it difficult to understand how crimes committed in broad daylight, in branded vehicles, caught on tapes would not be tracked and perpetrators arrested 72 hours after those shootings,” he said.
According to Mr Egbedun, the commissioner’s “apparent inability” to identify and prosecute offenders had emboldened criminal elements and increased public concern for safety.
He further alleged that since assuming office on 11 May 2025, Mr Gothan had attended state Security Council meetings on no more than two occasions. “On all other occasions, he either sent some retired personnel or persons junior to other service commanders to represent him,” the Speaker said.
The lawmakers also accused the police chief of attempting to incapacitate the Amotekun Corps, describing this as “another clear danger to the security of our people in Osun State, especially now that cases of kidnapping and banditry are on the rise”.
Mr Egbedun noted that hundreds of Accord Party campaign billboards had been vandalised without a single arrest, while the Commissioner of Police was “busy trying to stop the holding of campaign by our party men in parts of the state”.
“The police commissioner, from all indications, has become an accomplice to the plans to turn our state upside down and hand our democratic institutions to hijackers and state captors,” he said. “This is clearly unexpected, unacceptable, and very unfortunate.”
The Accord Party caucus has urged the Inspector General of Police to act swiftly ahead of the August governorship election. There has been no immediate response from the office of the Commissioner of Police or the Nigeria Police Force headquarters at the time of publication.
