Police arrest 47 ‘kidnappers, armed robbers’ in Oyo

The Oyo state police command says it has arrested 47 persons for alleged involvement in kidnapping, armed robbery, rape, hijacking, and diversion of trailers.

Adewale Osifeso, police spokesperson in Oyo, spoke in Ibadan, the state capital, on Friday while parading the suspects.

Osifeso said operatives recovered one AK-47 rifle, two locally made pistols, two vehicles, 170 bags of wheat, 1,130 cartons of adhesives, N2.7 million cash, and several other items from the suspects.

He said the suspects had been terrorising the people of the state and were arrested at different locations.

Osifeso said the suspected kidnappers allegedly invaded a herder camp in the Sepeteri area of the state.

“On August 30 at about 1.20 am, they fired gunshots sporadically into the area on arrival at the scene and disposed the victims of their mobile phones, huge sums of money, and some other valuable items,” NAN quoted him to have said.

“The suspects then proceeded to abduct the victims and whisk them away to unknown locations, where they contacted their respective family members to demand a ransom in the sum of N50 million.

“In furtherance of the payment, operational, technical, and intelligence assets were swiftly activated by the command in concert with some members of local vigilance groups in the community.

“During a manhunt for the fleeing suspected persons, two members of the armed robbery-cum-kidnapping syndicate were arrested in connection with the crime.”

Osifeso also paraded a 34-year-old man for allegedly raping a girl, who was experiencing a crisis from sickle cell.

“The girl was on her way to a pharmacy to buy drugs because she was experiencing a crisis at the time,” Osifeso said.

He said the suspect and one other person at large forcefully threatened to kill the victim if she refused to follow them to a house.

“She followed them out of fear. There, the suspect and that other person took turns to rape her before later releasing her.

“The suspect, in his statement, however, claimed to be in a relationship with the victim and that they both had consensual sex on the said date.

“He confessed that he was the only one that had sexual intercourse with the victim.”