Fayose: Police arraign Buhari’s fake security aides

The two suspects arrested for an alleged attempt to defraud the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, were paraded by the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Etop James, on Monday in Ado Ekiti.

Benedict Odiga, 38, and Abdusalam Hassan, 30, were later arraigned before a Magistrate’s court in Ado Ekiti on two counts of conspiracy and forgery.

The presiding Magistrate, Idowu Ayenimo, ordered that the accused persons be remanded in the prison until the next adjourned date.

The accused persons, who allegedly posed as President Muhammadu Buhari’s private security aides, had claimed they could influence the report of the military panel set up to investigate the role of the military in the June 21, 2014 Ekiti governorship election.

Gov Ayodele Fayose

According to the Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the two men had at a meeting with Fayose in his Afao Ekiti country home presented what they called a photocopy of page three of the preliminary report to show that they meant business.

While being paraded, the CP said the document with the letterhead, ‘Nigerian Army Force’ and a 57-page document ‘supposedly’ from the office of the Special Adviser, Ethics and Values, were recovered from the suspects.

“They confessed that they intended to defraud the governor. They confessed to have been formerly employed as private security guards by one Abdullahi Maikano and were attached with the Muhammadu Buhari Campaign team during the political rally.

“Investigations into their activities are still ongoing while they are being tried in court to be able to get more evidence.”

But while answering questions from reporters, Benedict denied ever attempting to dupe Fayose, saying he was only in Ekiti with a mission to see the governor, which he said was successful.

“We only used those documents to beat security so that we can get access to the governor. We didn’t have a sinister mission, nothing to achieve. We didn’t demand for money from the governor. Our mission was just to see him.”

When asked why did the governor get them arrested if truly they were out to help him. Benedict said, “We had discussion with him and when he suspected that those documents were forged, he decided to call the police.”