Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke’s media aide, Shakirulahi Babatunde, has been caught in the middle of a controversy over an alleged self-kidnapping incident, with the state government and the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) offering sharply different accounts of what happened.
The case reportedly began after Babatunde sent a message claiming that he had been kidnapped.
It raised concern within the state government and prompted officials to contact the police.
The matter has now taken a dramatic turn following allegations that the aide may have staged his own abduction in an attempt to obtain money from government officials.
The alleged incident reportedly occurred in Ede, Osun State, last week.
Reports on the matter claimed that Babatunde remained in a hideout while contacts were made over the purported kidnapping and a demand for money was allegedly being pursued.
The Osun State Government has confirmed that the police are investigating the matter.
However, it has rejected allegations that Governor Adeleke’s officials attempted to interfere with the investigation or prevent the police from taking action against the aide.
Governor Adeleke’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, said the government itself was responsible for reporting the matter to the police after receiving the message from Babatunde.
Rasheed said the case was subsequently transferred to the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of the Osun State Police Command for investigation.
In his statement, he said, “Our attention has been drawn to a reported case of self -kidnapping by one of the governor’s media aides, Shakirulahi Babatunde.
“We immediately want the public to know that the police are investigating the matter without any pressure from the state government.”
The government’s position came amid reports alleging that some senior officials, including the Chief of Staff to the governor, Kazeem Akinleye, were attempting to stop the police from investigating the matter.
Rasheed dismissed the allegation and insisted that there was no attempt by the Adeleke administration to shield anyone involved.
He explained that the government had acted immediately when the alleged kidnapping was first reported.
“It would be recalled that when the media aide sent a text message that he had been kidnapped, an incident report was immediately lodged with the police under the instruction of the Chief of Staff.
“The matter was further reported to the Anti Kidnapping Squad of Osun State Police Command, which swung into action as a signal of transparency and readiness for law enforcement.”
The governor’s spokesperson also strongly rejected reports that government officials were attempting to influence the police financially.
“It was therefore falsehood from the pit of hell to assert that the Chief of Staff or any state official was trying to prevent the police from conducting investigation into a matter which the state government originally reported to the police service.”
He added, “We categorically denied the fake news that there were attempts by the state officials to bribe the police to sweep the matter under the carpet. Such reports are unfounded and baseless conjectures.
“Nobody in the government is attempting to bribe the police and the police have not received any kobo from state officials as libelously asserted in a publication.”
The controversy has, however, provided another opportunity for the Osun APC to attack the Adeleke administration.
The opposition party accused the state government of attempting to use the alleged incident for political purposes and warned security agencies against allowing the matter to be suppressed.
The APC claimed that some officials of the state government had initially announced Babatunde’s alleged kidnapping on their personal social media platforms and blamed the opposition for the incident.
According to the party, the development changed after police operatives reportedly traced and apprehended Babatunde.
Osun APC Director of Information and Strategies, Mongaji Kola Olabisi, alleged that the aide was arrested by police officers attached to the Dugbe Division in Osogbo.
The party further claimed that Babatunde was taken into custody and allegedly confessed to staging the kidnapping.
Those claims have not been independently established by the police in a public statement.
As of the latest available reports, the Osun State Police Command had not publicly released a detailed account of the alleged arrest, the circumstances surrounding the reported discovery of the aide or any confession attributed to him.
This has left the police investigation as the key avenue for determining what actually happened.
The government has therefore maintained that the police should be allowed to complete their work.
Rasheed said the administration would wait for the findings of the investigation before deciding on further action.
“The police are currently investigating the matter while the state government is also waiting for the outcome of the investigation for further action,” he said.
