For about two weeks, the Hon. Commissioner for information in Kwara State, Mr. Wale Oladepo has striven to exonerate his boss, Governor Mohammed Lawal, of complicity in the unfortunate events of the ambush attack leading to the extra judicial murder of a harmless member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ajase-Ipo last month.

Oladepo, in the desperation to remain in the good books of his boss, literally threw caution to the winds assuming that every Nigeria was a dummy who can not read between the lines. In his desperation, Oladepo displayed the ineptitude of Lawal, and reinforced unconsciously, the need for Kwarans to look for alternative leadership promptly, when he claimed,"...Governor Lawal's life is no longer safe". It is curious that we could reach a point in which the chief security officer in a state could cry out about his safety, leading us to question his ability to then provide the necessary protection for the populace.

That Oladepo could even publicly admit this, questions the quality of advice that the governor receives. It is therefore important that those of us Kwarans, who care about the future of the state do not only sympathise with the governor, but actively work towards a capable change that would not "catch pneumonia while we are just sneezing."

Back to the Oladepo article; although he raised so many points to show that his boss was a saintly governor who has no hand in violent acts in the state, I shall restrict myself to the Ajase-Ipo issue and prove that the commissioner was either being economical with the truth, or unwittingly telling us that Lawal was no longer in a position to rule Kwara.

Even the logic of his allegation that: "Saraki's train of supporters and thugs were passing by supposedly, on their way to Makurdi for the take-off of Obasanjo's campaign that was to take place the following day. Before anyone could know it, the Saraki convoy had stopped, and out came men and women with cutlasses, axes, guns and other weapons of thuggery to unleash terror on the unprepared and unalert supporters of Lawal" is wobbly.

I am not a politician, but as someone born and bred in Kwara State, I refuse to believe that the people that I know so well would dare to take on the convoy of a governor who has a full security complement. That is if we accept his theory that these people were travelling to Markurdi with all the deadly weapons that he alleged they had with them.

If they had all these weapons, would they leave Ilorin, some 50 kilometres away from Ajase, to engage Lawal and his supporters in a supposed "foreign land?" This argument would probably have sold if supporters of both politicians in the community where the accident occurred were the ones involved in the clash. So what would have made people leave the same Ilorin to attack a governor they see everyday, elsewhere in the state?

But even if we buy Oladepo's story, should the chief executive of a state allow his security details to rain bullets on citizens of his state like his group did to the PDP convoy? Couldn't a more concerned governor allow only the use of less fatal and minimal force in dealing with the situation?

More importantly, Oladepo forgets that Kwarans are very alert people who would not be taken in by the deceptions of a governor and his commissioners. How does he react to allegations that his principal goes about with a group of thugs led by a once expelled student of the University of Ilorin? How does he react to the fact that the governor has the complement of armed hit and run men known as Gbosa boys in his employ? How does he react to the fact that his boss would do anything including sponsoring people the age of his children to unleash violence in the hitherto peaceful state? Is it not true that some of these thugs are on the payroll of the state government?

What credit does it do to Oladepo's story that Ismaila Alase, one of those declared wanted by the police for the Ajase incident, happens to be the Personal Assistant to the Commissioner for Special Duties, Alhaji Razaq Lawal, himself the son- in- law to the governor.

While one would agree that Oladepo has the duty to defend THE activities of his boss, he must allow social responsibility and the realization that the Almighty who sees every hidden thing would one day call everyone to judgment, dictate his reaction to issues.

Ayodeji wrote from Lagos.