The South West Youth Alliance has lambasted a chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, Buba Galadima, for his spurious and inflammatory remarks about the Inspector-General of Police on ESET TV.
According to the National Coordinator of the SWYA, Taiwo Adegbenga, ordinarily, it wouldn’t have been necessary to respond to such malicious and unfounded allegations by an unscrupulous element in the person of Buba Galadima, but the unsuspecting public could be misled to believe the lies therein.
“His utterance is a deliberate attempt to distort facts, malign the integrity of IGP Kayode Egbetokun, and undermine his professionalisation of the Force since his assumption of office.
“Galadima has accused Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun of overstepping his bounds, saying the police have no business handling civil matters like libel. Galadima questioned the criminalisation of alleged defamatory statements, insisting that “if I abuse the president, he should take me to court, not the police.”
“We wish to remind Galadima that in Nigeria, a defamatory statement made online, whether private or public, can be an offence under the Cybercrimes Act and the Criminal Code Act. Specifically, the Cybercrimes Act penalises knowingly sending false messages or matter via computer systems that cause annoyance, insult, or other harm.
“The authority to prosecute rests with the Nigeria Police Force – National Cybercrime Centre; therefore, Egbetokun is not exceeding his authority.”
On the so-called recent arrests and political tensions in Rivers and Kano, blaming them on misuse of police authority, we challenge Galadima to name those arrested illegally in Rivers and Kano or keep his mouth shut, as Egbetokun has always resisted political pressure and upheld the integrity of the Nigeria police force.
Adegbenga further said that Galadima should know that there are sometimes criminal aspects of libel. Therefore, the Nigeria police know their job.
“We wish to assert boldly to the public to ignore the vitriolic claims made by Buba Galadima, whose ongoing attacks reveal a clear bias, deep-seated animosity, and chronic hatred towards the Nigeria police force. IGP Egbetokun is neither overzealous nor excessively active in certain matters. He is also not taking orders from individuals whom he would typically apprehend, as claimed by the mischievous, serially unsuccessful politician, Galadima”.
“We implore the public to disregard the vitriolic assertions of Buba Galadima, whose persistent attacks portray a clear bias, deep-seated antagonism and chronic hatred for the Nigeria police force
