The hope of Mr. Amos Olaniyan, a police sergeant Inspector whose 22-year suspension from the Force was decided by last year's Senate resolution that he should be reinstated, has turned to ashes. Olaniyan was unofficially suspended, along with some of his colleagues, in 1994. His hope of reinstatement was dashed by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Solomon Arase, who has said he did not receive any notice from the Senate in respect of resolutions on the matter.
At a Senate hearing on his petition last year, Olaniyan revealed that he lost a chance of re-absorption into the Police in 2005 because of his inability to raise N100,000 demanded as bribe by the Police Provost Marshal.
The Provost Marshal at the time was Mr. Donatus Iroha, a commissioner of police, who retired as an Assistant Inspector-General in charge of Zone 8 in Lokoja.
The Senate resolved that the Police should immediately reintegrate Olaniyan, write him a letter of apology and pay him all the service benefits he was entitled to. Also, it was resolved that he should be given all the promotions he was denied on account of his suspension. According to an associate helping Olaniyan to push for re-absorption and compensation, the IGP is refusing both reinstatement and payment. The associate, Mr. Tunji Ishola, told our correspondent that he got a response from the office of the IGP after pressing for implementation of the Senate resolution that Olaniyan's celebrated reprieve at the Senate was only designed to excite the public via the media.
The Provost Marshal, Mr. Jonah J. Mava, who represented the IGP at the Senate Committee hearing, claimed that Olaniyan was retired last year after the resolution.
Olaniyan told SaharaReporters that the letter of retirement he got came from a somewhat unofficial source. He added that no payment instruction was attached to the letter dated 2015.Olaniyan, SaharaReporters learnt, may have been a victim of an intrigue, which also affected some of his colleagues in 1994. A police source said Olaniyan was part of a unit raised to take on legendary armed robber of the 80s, Lawrence Anini. The operation was initially compromised by a crop of senior police officers led by George Iyamu, who shielded the notorious bandit. Through the involvement of the unit of which Olaniyan was a member, the Force discovered that some of its senior officers abetted robbery. Anini and members of his gang were later nabbed and executed. Iyamu was similarly shot for his ignominious role.
While Iyamu and other conspirators in the police were condemned to death along with Anini, other police senior officers implicated in the scandal were controversially freed by
a panel headed by Mr. Mohammed Gambo.
The freed officers, it was said, later framed up junior officers who carried out the assignment that got them exposed. The frame-up resulted in their suspension. Though the panel set up to hear the matter of the suspended officers, who included Olaniyan, absolved them, the junior officers were however expelled.