Bomb Accusation Is A Ploy To Destabilise AC   

Action Congress chieftain and lawyer, Gbenga Akano, spoke with GBENRO ADESINA about the intrigues of the 2007 bomb blast in Oshogbo, Osun State

•Gbenga Akano.

As a person implicated in the 2007 bomb blast in Oshogbo, what do you know about it?
First and foremost, I don’t know anything about the bomb blast. I was not part of the blast and I am sure that my party didn’t plan any bomb blast.

How did you become a suspect?
Late April 2008, three policemen, led by Supol Adewale Ayuba, came to my office to ask of me. As soon as they came in I asked if their aim was to arrest me and that they should let us go.

Did you have a premonition?
Yes,  because there was a lead story in one of their megaphones known as Osun Mail being funded by the state government. Its editor was the former Guardian correspondent in the state. I learnt that local governments contribute money monthly to fund the paper. There was a lead story in that paper that a magistrate and a prominent lawyer of Aregbesola had been implicated in the bomb blast. When the magistrate was arrested, everybody knew that since he was close to me, as my in-law and friend, I would be the next on their list. I followed them to their office where I was quizzed on things that did not centre on the bomb blast. They accused me of releasing my account to be used by AC to fund sinister programmes and I gave them my three account numbers to go and check to find out if what was there did not reflect my income. They asked me why I ride with Magistrate Oyebiyi to court and I told them that if there is any reason to do so I will, as long as at that time, I didn’t have a case before him. Besides, he is my in-law. My wife’s mother is from the same compound with the magistrate.
They asked me about the bomb blast and I told them that I didn’t know anything about it. They eventually released me on self recognition. The following day, I went to the press to recount my encounter with the police on the bomb blast. I told the world that I warned the police against being used by the government. They became angry and charged me to court. They charged me with a bailable offence but Magistrate Akintayo denied me bail, my constitutional right, and ordered that I be remanded in Ile-Ife Prison. It was after a week that I was granted  bail. Since then, the case had been hanging on my neck until a few days ago and my name was removed based on the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP’s advice.
The basis of my discharge is not known to me. When you accuse some people of conspiracy, why remove one or two out of the conspirators? Why would other conspirators still be in the net? My fear is that I don’t have access to the legal advice. I want to apply now for the CTC of the legal advice. I want to know the content of the legal advice. So that if the content of the legal advice is at variance with whatever we have made as our statement or is now suggestive of any other thing, then we would know where to take it up. But I am afraid, they may be going towards murder.

Where were you on the day of the bomb blast?
Incidentally, I was in the court in Osogbo.

How do you feel about how police went about the case until it got to court?
Initially, the police were objective under the commissionership of Sulaiman Fakai. I read the report that no operation is linked with AC and that he suspected that the explosive could be dynamite. But the case got twisted about nine months after. That was when they discovered a diary. They claimed that it was inside the diary they found my name and those of others. Abayomi gave a defective account of how the bombing was planned. Opposition in Osun is gagged. It is quite unfortunate that they run the state like the private estate of an individual.

Did you ever meet Abayomi before the incident?
I don’t know him and I have never met him.

Maybe, he has contact with AC without your knowledge?
He has no link with our party in Osun State. We don’t know him. Has anybody asked how Olasugba and Taye escaped? Taye would have carried Abayomi away but when he realised that assisting Abayomi would lead to his arrest, he left him and ran away.

How was Abayomi arrested?
He was affected by the bomb and became incapacitated, leading to his arrest at the spot. After the completion of  police investigations implicating him, all accusing fingers were pointed toward him by the team that investigated it in Osogbo and in Abuja and he was charged. It was during the pendency of his matter before the court that he now said, “I want to talk because I felt abandoned by my sponsors,” according to his affidavit. Whereas all the opportunities he had to mention his sponsor when he was arrested and taken to state CID Abuja, he didn’t implicate any member of the opposition. It was later in the affidavit that he said he wanted to tell a story of how it happened. And that there is a diary where he kept record of what transpired.

Where is Abayomi?
We learnt that he is in Government House.

What is he doing there?
He is being fed by the government. We learnt that when his bail was granted, they said that he had to be in a protective custody in the Government House.

Tags:  Gbenga Akano, Oshogbo, Supol Adewale Ayuba