Ogun Monarch Defends IBD, Says He's Not A Smuggler, Gun Runner

...says media report aimed to defame hotelier 

The Eselu of Iselu Kingdom in Yewa North Local Government Area of Ogun State, Oba Akintunde Akinyemi, has faulted an investigative report indicting popular businessman, lbrahim Dende Egungbohun as a smuggler and gun runner.

An investigative journalist with Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), Fisayo Soyombo, had in a report accused Egungbohun, popularly known as IBD Dende of smuggling contrabands, such as foreign parboiled rice, poultry products and guns into the country through Ogun State border communities.

Fisayo also accused Egungbohun, an hotelier of conniving with customs officers to smuggle illicit items into the country.

But, reacting to the report, Oba Akinyemi in a statement he personally signed and made available to journalists in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, on Monday, declared that the report was aimed at defaming Egungbohun, who hails from Ilaro in Yewa South local government area of Ogun State.

"I have been a first class monarch since the year 2005 and Ibrahim Egungbohun, popularly called IBD Dende is one of my subjects with high integrity and pedigree.

"IBD Dende is not a smuggler, but a clearing and forwarding agent who carries out his legitimate work of importation of goods and services through the land border just like other clearing and forwarding agents who carry out their jobs through the Apapa Port, among others.

"The investigation carried out by the reporter was done to defame the person of IBD Dende because the source(s) of his information was questionable. How on earth would a journalist interrogate certain people in the community instead of interfacing with the security agents whose jobs are to secure the border areas in the country like the Nigeria Customs Service, the Directorate of State Security (DSS), the Nigeria Police Force?

"The assertion that IBD Dende had been arrested several times and nothing happened to him was a baseless statement. It is a normal thing to invite people for questioning and if the security agents are satisfied with any suspects, they will definitely release him. 

"The reporter should not usurp the work of the security agents who have not found anything incriminating on different occasions that IBD Dende was interrogated", the monarch submitted in the statement.