Report: How police arrested suspected attackers of Maersk MD

The two suspects who attacked Gildas Tohouo, managing director of Maersk Line, and his wife at their Ikoyi residence on Sunday reportedly plotted the attack three weeks before the incident. 

The Nation reports that the suspects, Goke Olamilekan, an estate electrician, and his friend, Akande Adeyinka were said to have smuggled their weapons into the estate and hid them in an empty flat some days before the attack.

According to a police source, the duo allegedly didn’t know Touoho was at home on the day they attacked the family “as the wife was their target”.

Olamilekan reportedly told his friend to tell the security men at the gate that he was in the estate to see one Max.

During the attack, Tohouo’s Bulgarian wife was killed while the husband was critically injured.

The police source was quoted as saying the suspects would have escaped arrest but for Haleem Odumosu, Lagos commissioner of police, who insisted that the residence and neighbourhood must be searched thoroughly.

The source said one of the suspects was found on top of a mango tree by the commissioner using a high-definition torchlight in surrounding bushes.

“The CP received the distress call and raced to the scene in less than an hour. He was on patrol when he got the message. Everywhere was dark and so, the CP brought out a very bright and big torch from his car,” the source was quoted to have said.

“As we were going there, he called both the area commander and the DPO in charge of the area to join him.

“He practically smoked the suspects out from their hiding places. Those suspects would have escaped if the CP had not taken the urgent steps he took.

“He insisted that everywhere in the estate be searched despite everyone else itching to go home.

“He insisted that the police must get a lead that would help both investigation and quick arrest of the suspects if they had fled.

“With his insistence, all other officers had no choice but to obey. It was while the search was going on that he flashed his torch up and then saw one of them hiding atop a mango tree. He was promptly arrested.”

The police said investigations are ongoing and the suspects have not been paraded.