Deputy Senate Leader, and Senator representing Kwara South, Oyelola Ashiru, has confirmed that the operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, raided his residence in GRA Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, but declared that no incriminating substance was found during the raid.
He, however, dared the agency to charge anyone found with illicit drugs or illicit activities in his house to prove the weighty allegations the NDLEA levelled against him in its release on Sunday. Monday.
The NDLEA had, in a press conference addressed by its spokesman, Femi Babafemi, accused the Senator of vendetta for saying that the agency had become a cesspool of corruption and the swamp within the organization needed to be drained.
“The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency is corrupt and compromised,” had punched the NDLEA during a recent public hearing in the senate.
But Babafemi picked the gauntlet and told the world that the Deputy Senate Leader was up in arms because the agency had raided his home in Ilorin, found illicit drugs on his domestic staff, and vehemently rebuffed all the pressure by the senator to let the suspects of its hook.
However, Sen. Oyelola Ashiru has fired a rebuttal in which he denied any wrongdoing, and challenged the agency to charge anyone caught in his house with illicit activities to court.
In the rebuttal issued on his behalf by his legislative aide, Olaitan Adeyanju, Ashiru admonished the NDLEA to do some soul-searching and clean up rather than resorting to media trial and cheap publicity.
“We find it preposterous and mere fishing for justification that NDLEA had to wait for the senator’s observation on the floor of the Senate before making its spurious allegations,” Adeyanju said in the statement.
“As a matter of fact, Ashiru never employed any aid bearing Ibrahim Mohammed and Mohammed Yahaya as bandied by NDLEA.
“The agency claimed that its operatives visited the senator’s Ilorin house and found nothing incriminating.
“The entire house was searched and nothing incriminating was found. If any drugs were found on certain persons mentioned by the NDLEA, it is rational to ask at which court of law were the culprits charged?
“It is also important to state that Senator Ashiru has not sent any aide to the NDLEA to influence the dropping of drug allegations against anyone known as Tosin Odepidian.
“Indeed, all the names mentioned by the agency are strange and none works directly or indirectly with Ashiru.
“The NDLEA has the duty to take anyone suspected of drug dealing to court rather than (resort to) name-calling and engaging in media trial.
“This clarification aims to set the record straight and address the misleading information circulated by the NDLEA.
“It is an open secret that many criminals, cultists, armed robbers and drug addicts find their way back into business after gratifying law enforcement officers.
“The NDLEA ought to search its house and fish out bad eggs rather than seeking cheap publicity.
“Ashiru remains committed to serving the people of Kwara South and upholding the truth at all times in the search for strict professionalism among our law enforcement agencies.”