The Police Command in Oyo State on Friday in Ibadan said it has arrested 47 persons for alleged involvement in kidnapping, armed robbery, rape, hijacking and diversion of trailers.
The Command’s Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Adewale Osifeso, showed to newsmen the suspects on behalf of the state’s Commissioner of Police, Ayodele Sonubi.
He said items recovered from the suspects included 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 others.
Osifeso said the suspects had been terrorising the people of the state and were arrested at different locations within the state.
Speaking about the arrest of the suspected kidnappers, Osifeso said the kidnappers, who were armed with weapons, allegedly invaded a herder camp at Sepeteri area of the state.
“On Aug. 30 at about 1.20 a.m, 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.
“The suspects then proceeded to abduct the victims and whisk them away to unknown locations where they contacted their respective family members to demand for 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 said.
The PPRO said a cash of N2.7 million which was received by two arrested kidnappers as their share from the ransom paid by the victims’ relatives was recovered.
The Police also paraded a 34-year-old man who allegedly raped a girl, who was suffering from sickle cell girl.
“The girl was on her way to a pharmacy to buy drug because she was experiencing crisis at the time,” Osifeso said.
He said the arrested suspect and one other person still 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,” Osifeso added.
