He stands tall and fit, and almost elegant. His face is cool and calm, and almost friendly. But deep down in his heart lies the venom of a ravenous snake that sniffs out lives in split seconds.
Looking at his physique, and the complete set of body language that sweeps through his tall frame, the man Omodara doesn’t come across as totally toxic. But that could be partly because the mortal man can’t see through the heart.
Being the State Security Adviser to the Governor, the Governor relies on Omodara’s counsel on security matters to secure Kogi State and her people. For a moment, when security matters were going on fine in Kogi State, a few people attributed the success to Mr. Omodara. Soon afterwards, the collapse of lies were too quick the moment it became obvious that the security gain in Kogi was the proceed of General Okutimo’s Security Architecture and Governor Yahaya Bello’s multimillion Security spending. Hardly is there any sitting Governor in Nigeria who outspend Governor Yahaya Bello on Security matters. For this, the Governor has become a national hero. Many are of the opinion that given the humongous amount the Governor has committed to security, he should be reaping bigger dividends if Omodara were to do his job as expected of him. Under Omodara’s supervision as State Security Adviser, a serving Commissioner fell to the bullets of kidnappers even as a sitting LGA Chairman was carted away in the same operation and was forced to endure the pangs of the forest for the better part of two weeks, saved only by undisclosed amount of ransom to the happy kidnappers. After the exit of General Okutimo from the Administration and under the watch of Mr. Omodara, untold number of people have been killed or kidnapped on Kogi soil. It was sad most recently when the Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Omofaiye, escaped death only by the whiskers as kidnappers aimed at his head on his way to his country home. This safety gap came to a head more recently when the mother of the Chief of Staff to the Governor was carted away from her Okene home yet without trace.
In the wake of these disasters, the few people who chose to blame Mr. Omodara were those without the foreknowledge that the ex-Navy man only served in the Nigerian Navy working in the media unit as a Cameraman and participated in the publication of military journals. He could have been good with the pen but not necessarily with the gun.
Many have opined that being a State Security Adviser goes beyond hanging around the Governor to take pictures and directing traffics at public functions where the Governor is present. Oftentimes, these self-serving activities seem to occupy Mr. Omodara’s priority list rather than working selflessly on the core security tenet of securing lives and properties. This is why it did not come to many as a surprise when Bunu, lacking any presence of institutionalized security architecture, was described as a safe haven for all kinds of criminals.
The summary above is not the core of this note. To unravel the epic center of this message, we would be asking the questions: why does Omodara hate to see any rising political figure from Okun working closely with the Governor? What was Omodara’s political game with Kehinde Oloruntoba as Commissioner? What is Omodara’s political game with Wemi Jones now as Commissioner? These questions and more are answered in Part Two of Jerry Omodara – Me, Myself the I
Watch out
Article written by: Adeola Ogungbuyi.
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