The Nigeria Police Force yesterday said allegations by Governor Ayo Fayose that he was slapped and kicked by a policeman were false.
The Police also said the governor was just being overdramatic.
The Police said it investigated the matter by inviting the Aide-de-camp (ADC) and the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the Governor.
Both officers according to the Police said nothing of such happened despite the governor’s claims that the police shot at him and fired teargas that blinded him.
This was disclosed by the Force spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, on a television programme monitored by The Nation.
Moshood said: “It was overdramatized and everybody saw how it played out because how do you link up an injured arm with an injured leg and neck?
“The Executive Governor of the state was not manhandled. Nobody slapped him because we saw allegation that the Governor was slapped. What were the ADCs doing, what were the CSOs doing and other security agencies personnel that were with him doing at that point in time?
“Due to the allegation, those two (ADC and CSO) were invited to Command Headquarters to make statement because the Inspector General of Police after hearing of the accusations which is something that cannot be actualized directed that the matter be investigated and they were asked if they have deteriorated in their duty and why they allowed a governor to be slapped and pushed?
”They made statement that nothing like that happened.”
On why the crowd were dispersed, Moshood said: “The incident that occurred was the one that involved people sharing fuel and we are investigating that.
”Why must people be induced with fuel and money? It was the people that could not get the money and fuel that went in there to try disrupt the rally and we tried to disperse them.
“When they learnt that we were dispersing them with teargas, people left. Also, no individual has reported to police that anybody was killed or missing because of what happened while we were dispersing the crowd. So, to the best of our knowledge, nobody has reported in any Police station that he sustained injury.”
He also assured residents of a safe and secured environment during and after the election.
“The bottomline is that we are interested in providing secure environment for this election to hold and the people of Ekiti people are encouraged to continue to embrace peace.
“The deployment of 30,000 is no doubt to secure them. If you look at the history of election in this country, you would discover that Ekiti State is a flashpoint because some people’s utterances are inciting.”
