Olajide Osoba, Abeokuta
The Ogun State Police Command on Wednesday paraded two suspects for an alleged murder of a yet to be identified man in Sagamu area of the State.
The suspects: Abba Abdulkareem and Munira Usman were paraded along with other suspects for crimes ranging from cultism, armed robbery, kidnapping, burglary to impersonation.
They were paraded by the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Bashir Makama at the Command’s headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta, the State capital who disclosed that the suspects were arrested at different areas of the State.
Weapons recovered from them included, locally made pistols, battle axes, knives, among others.
Among those paraded were 16 members of various cult groups who renounced their membership in the presence of their parents.
The Commissioner while parading the suspects said, “We have identified that some of the security challenges confronting the State are mostly linked to cultism and cult activities, both in tertiary institutions and even on the streets”.
“We have been able to mop up so many of them but today it is taking a different shape because some of them (cultists) accepted to renounce their membership of these cult activities. And we are glad that they did because of their future. We are looking at a situation whereby the renunciation will not only be done to us but it must follow legal procedure, including swearing of affidavit which must be followed up to the court.”
“Those that have renounced, we will identify, register and profile them. We will also inculcate them into what we call Police Supervisees. They were arrested in different places in Sagamu and Ijebu-Ode. If you realised, Ijebu-Ode has taken a very terrible turn in cult activities but we will not rest on our oars to make sure that we cleanse these communities of the ills and return them to a peaceful state”, Makama said.
The suspected murder, Abba Abdulkareem while speaking to journalists said his gang had gone to burgle a shop at Sagamu and during the operation, one of them he identified simply as Yusuf who is now at large, killed a person.
Abdulkareem, 25 years old from Kaduna State, said they were arrested at their hide out in Ogere area of the State where they were sharing their loots.
“We went to burgle a shop at Sagamu expressway and one of us, Yusuf, now at large killed the man near the shop.
“We were later arrested at our hide out in Ogere where we kept our loot. We didn’t know that the police were already on our trail”, Abdulkareem said.
Also paraded was an Indian hemp smuggler, Kenneth Agbamhe who was allegedly arrested with 40 bags of weeds suspected to be Indian hemp.
Agbamhe who hails from Edo State and his accomplice, one Mike, now at large were intercepted by the men of the State Command on patrol along Ayetoro road while transporting the bags of Indian hemp to an unidentified buyer in Lagos State.
The bags of Indian hemp were carefully concealed in a Toyota hilux vehicle.
Agbamhe who denied ownership of the Indian hemp said he was contacted by Mike who paid him N5,000 to escort the goods to Lagos.
“We were caught on our way transporting the bags of Indian hemp to Lagos. I’m not the owner of the goods. I was only contacted to escort it to Lagos. The owner (Mike) has ran away. I knew Mike through my late brother.”
“I was arrested along Ayetoro road. This is my third time of smuggling Indian hemp. I was given N5,000 to escort the vehicle to Lagos”, Agbamhe said.
A fake soldier, Mohammad Yakubu was arrested along Sagamu-Benin expressway for impersonating an army officer.
Yakubu said he was dismissed along side 215 others in 2016 for refusing to obey an order which directed them to go to Maiduguri in combating insurgents.
He said, “I was on my way to Kano and I didn’t have much money on me so I put an army T-shirt so that I will get some people to help me.”
“I’m a dismissed army officer. I was dismissed in 2016. We were about 215 in number that were dismissed because we refused to go to Maiduguri”, he added.
One of the repentant cultists, Abraham Ayomide, while speaking to journalists, said, “I had previously renounced membership of cultism two years ago in the presence of my parents and my pastor but I didn’t know it was not going to work that way. I didn’t know I would need the police certificate of renunciation.
“I came willingly to renounce my membership, I was never arrested. I never joined cultism willingly, I was forced to join and I was deceived by those who forced me to join”, Ayomide said.
