Ex-Lagos task force chairman bolsters morale of incumbent chair amid attacks

A former Chairman of Lagos State Task Force, ACP Yinka Egbeyemi has showed support for the embattled incumbent chairman of the agency, CSP Adetayo Akerele.

Egbeyemi said by the nature of the job, Akerele could be wrongly accused for moving against criminal elements and doing his job as required.

Egbeyemi lamented that many people were posting stories against Akerele without verifying the truth, recalling how he faced the same fate during his time as head of the task force.

He wrote, “I took over this office in March 2016 and redeployed to RRS (Rapid Response Squad) in December 2020.

I have worked in different Departments of my Profession but three departments shook me very well.

One gave me Psychological issues in Ogun State.

Another one exposed me to the most dangerous operations that I saw death face to face while the last one created Psychological, Emotional and Physical Trauma for me; but at the end, I conquered all.

The one that gave me the three traumatic situations was the Lagos State Taskforce. It was where I realised and saw how people can cook lies against you and circulate it to be truthful.

It was a place I experienced the so called Learned People talking fallaciously and claiming they were right.

I still remembered vividly, a Thursday that some Youths and Students came to Bolade Oshodi, our office, to present me with an Award. Few minutes after the collection of the Award, I had a call to report to the Governor’s office. On getting there, I met a panel headed by SSA Security, alleging that I led Taskforce men to the Makoko Area of Lagos and killed 3 people. Initially I thought it was a joke because the SSA Security was very close to me. The reality came to me when I was shown a video a SAN posted on the internet about the killing and even showing the corpse. The worst scenario was that the person that was in the position to call and ask me what truly happened was the same person who sent the video clip to Governor Ambode.

It was like the whole world was digging me into a pit. I even put a call to those students that came to give me the Award; nobody seems to believe me. Right there, I knew the only saviour I’ve got is God and myself. The culprits of the acclaimed killing had fled the scene. Makoko community were shouting that it was Taskforce from Lagos State government. I became so confused and perplexed.

Suddenly the officer in charge of the outpost in Makoko was called in as directed by the main Authority. While he was narrating his findings to the panel, he mentioned that they came with Black Maria. I immediately asked him what inscription was on the Black Maria and the colour. His reply was the normal Lagos environment colour. This never made any sense to us. I emphasised on the inscription and he said they wrote LAGESC on the Black Maria. I immediately called the Executive secretary of LAGESC who later informed us of those in Taskforce on Land grabbers unit that came to borrow their Black Maria with some policemen.

After hearing this narrative, the SSA Security looked into my eyes and said;

“Brother mi, Olorun a ma ko ę yọ o. Ota ti popular fun ninu işę yii; meaning; “My brother, may God protect you from this your job. You have numerous enemies”.

I understood what he meant because I knew who sent the video clip to the Governor’s office and mentioned my name.

As at this period so many bloggers have hijacked the news and have circulated it on different platforms; even the so called Police/Human Right Groups platform that I belonged to that period. Though, I later exited myself from it seeing the type of people I was with. People who never called to verify the truth before helping to share.

The saddest thing was that after the truth was known that it was not Egbeyemi and his Taskforce teams, nobody put up a rejoinder nor make any apology to my person in private or publicly.

In recent times, I have seen how attacks were fashioned against the person of the present Chairman Taskforce and his teams. How so many bloggers have shared without verification or hearing from both parties.