Spokesman for the Kwara State police command, Mr. Ajayi Okasanmi, a Superintendent of Police who had at different times played the role of a frontman for the Nigeria Police Force in Kogi and Kwara states for 15 years now, had dignitaries gathered in his honour penultimate week as he launched his book.
The book launch event was held at the Banquet Hall, opposite Government House, Ilorin penultimate Wednesday.
The senior police officer’s book was titled ‘Memoir Of A Police Image Maker’ .
He revealed at the event that two incidents were recorded in the State of Harmony which were challenging situations for him.
‘The first one that I will describe as a challenging situation happened in 2015 , something happened at the eid praying ground that involved the then president of the senate and it became so challenging in the sense that as a security agency and as police officers, it’s our duty to protect citizens and it involved someone who has a high profile in the country, the number 3 citizen, it will be very unreasonable for us to say we are here and people are doing something unimaginable.
So, it took a long time for us to explain to the people. The narrative was not what people were saying outside. So, it was very challenging to convince the people. But eventually people knew that what happened that day was not what some people wanted them to believe, the former Senate President was not pelted with stones. But people wanted the narrative that said the man was pelted with stones at the eid praying ground. It was a very challenging period for us, and we had to defend our position.
The second challenging situation was the time four Turkish nationals were kidnapped in Gbale village, Edu Local Government , Kwara State in 2019. It was so challenging that the whole world’s attention was on Kwara State but to the glory of God we were able to rescue them alive and without paying a dime. Those were the hard times we had but with divine support we have continued doing our job’, he said.
Okasanmi also disclosed that the most dramatic but shocking experience was when someone alleged that he collected two thousand dollars from him to influence a case six years ago. While noting that he had remained unruffled, Okasanmi added that he came through this unscathed as it was not only confirmed later that it was a false accusation but also helped in increasing people’s confidence and trust in him.
Dignitaries at the event include Chairman, Committee on Health, Kwara State House of Assembly, Hon Razaq Owolabi, Commissioner of Police Kwara State, Mr. Victor Olaiya, former Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Raheem Adedoyin, Olupo of Ajase Ipo, Oba Ismail Yahya Alebiosu and Mr. Olohungbebe, a lecturer at the Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin.
The senior police officer also disclosed factors that motivated him to author the book.
‘To God be the Glory, I’ve been in the public relations for close to 15 years now and I think it is good for me to put my experience both in Kwara and Kogi states on record.’
At the same time, I want to make sure that there’s a document that can be used as a research material by scholars and even policemen, especially those that are interested in public relations so that they can have something to work with. That’s just the primary reason for doing that. We’ve also put it on record that there was a time that Okasanmi Ajayi was the Police Public Relations officer in Kwara State.
I started thinking about the book and working on it two years ago, and I will not lie. When I saw reason to do this, I called some people that are experienced in the area of book writing. I went through so many materials, my interviews published by newspapers. I went through and I picked some experiences, and I consulted some books that are relevant in the area of book writing, and I started to put pen to paper and put my experience together. To God be the glory , today, it is a success today’, he submitted.
