Police arrest 11 ‘kidnappers’ in Ibarapa

The Oyo police command says it has arrested 11 suspected kidnappers terrorising the people of Ibarapa area of the state.

The alleged kidnappers were among 35 suspects paraded by the command on Wednesday in Ibadan, the state capital.

Ngozi Onadeko, the state commissioner of police, told journalists that the kidnappers invaded Subawah Filling Station along Idere road, Igboora, on January 2 with sophisticated weapons, including AK-47 rifles.

She explained that they opened fire on the filling station, killing two girls in the process, after which they abducted Sherifat Adisa, owner of the filling station.

“In the course of the attack, the kidnappers shot sporadically in different directions and in the process, two young girls, identified as Babatunde Omowumi and Toriola Kudirat, were hit by stray bullets and died on the spot,” Onadeko said.

“The bandits later abducted one alhaja Sherifat Adisa, owner of the filling station, and whisked her into the bush where they brutally murdered her.

“The three deceased were later deposited at the morgue by police operatives from Igboora division.

“Upon the conclusion of the preliminary investigation, the case was transferred to the monitoring unit for more investigation.

“No sooner was the case received, a team of crack police detectives swung into action and arrested nine suspects from their hideouts.

“On January 5, further investigation revealed that one of the prime suspects, Jare Muhammed, inserted his SIM card number 07086824526 on the Nokia phone belonging to the deceased, Sherifat, which was taken away from her during the armed robbery operation.”