By Lekan Adejuwon
In a major clampdown of criminals, men of the Ekiti State Police Command has paraded a couple, Bello Owolabi and his wife Jumoke for cult related crimes that triggered the recent clash between Eiye and Aiye confraternities.
The couple were paraded along side fifteen other suspects for offences such as kidnapping, rapping and robbery.
According to reports, the husband who is a cultistist popularity known as Awolu had beaten his wife and inflicted injuries on her but the elder brother of the wife who is also a member a rival cult group mobilized to attack the husband a situation that led to counter attack.
Parading the suspects in the Command Headquarters, Ado Ekiti, the Public Relations Officer of the Command, DSP Sunday Abutu explained that the command’s Rapid Response Squad also arrested Augutine Agboodo, Adeniyi Olamilekan, Williams Friday and Ademoh Gabriel inside the forest close to Igede farm settlement.
During interrogation, the suspects confessed to be members of a kidnapping syndicate who have engaged in series of kidnapping operations in Ekiti State including the kidnapping of one Ajibade Adeleke on 06/06/2022 at Igede farm settlement in Ayede-Ekiti, the kidnapping of one Eisape Victoria on 20/12/2022, amongst others where ransoms were collected.
Also, during a bush combing in Kajola Forest Reserve Usman Ali and Aliu Sheu were apprehended for allegedly involving in different kidnapping cases in Ekiti State.
In a related development, Abutu told journalists that a notorious kidnapper, Abubakar Bello on a tip off, was arrested by the men of the command in synergy with Amotekun security Network in Ado Ekiti.
Mr Abutu said Usman Bature was cought in Oke Ako Ekiti for alleged kidnapping while Nurenu Isah , Igbekele Fagbemi and Sunday Olawoye were arrested by the command operatives along Ijan road, Ado Ekiti for kidnapping.
During investigation, it was revealed that the arrested suspect was among the hoodlums that laid siege along Oke Ako/Irele road on 03/09/2022, where the vehicle conveying one Ayebulu Segun, a civil defence officer alongside his siblings, was attacked. The officer was shot by the hoodlums and died on the spot while two other members of his family were kidnapped. Concerted effort intensified by the Command operatives later led to the rescue of the two kidnapped victims.
In a separate incident, Abutu said the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of he Command on 4/4/3/2023 at about 18:00hrs, arrested one Jimoh Gani for participating in the robbing and raping of a student of the University of Education, Ikere-Ekiti.
Investigation revealed that the victim boarded a vehicle from Ado-Ekiti to Oye-Ekiti but on their way to Oye-Ekiti, the driver changed route and took her to A.U.D Secondary School where she was gang raped by the suspect alongside two others who are currently at large and robbed of her Tecno phone valued sixty-five thousand naira and cash sum of sixteen thousand naira.
During interrogation, the suspect confessed to have committed the heinous crime alongside one Femi Ayobami and Alfa Kayode, all of Ado-Ekiti, who escaped the scene during arrest.
He urged members of the public to always avail police information that would lead to arrest of criminals
