• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Cops and robbers

security

(i) “CONTROVERSY TRAILS KILLINGS BY ALLEGED AMOTEKUN OFFICER IN OYO.”

A man said to be a member of the Oyo State Security Agency, popularly known as Operation Amotekun, has allegedly killed two persons in the IsaleOsi area of Ibadan.

The two victims were identified as Akin Delokun and Azeez Hammed.

The suspect, Sikiru Apanpa, was also alleged to have shot and injured another resident in the same area.

Some residents claimed that Apanpa was a member of the Oodua People’s Congress, but was later recruited by Operation Amotekun.

“PUNCH Metro” gathered that the killings happened on Thursday when a resident invited the Amotekun corps to intervene in a fight among hoodlums in the area.

One of the hoodlums was reportedly shot and later died.

His death was said to have led to an attack on a vigilante in the area.

The vigilante, it was gathered, invited his colleagues to rescue him, which led to another round of fighting.

The Chairman of Amotekun in Oyo State, Col. Kunle Togun (retd), when contacted by our correspondent, said he was not in Ibadan.

He said he would ask his men for details of the incident.

However, the Information Officer of Amotekun in the state, Mrs Ayolola Adedoja, denied the allegation against the security outfit.

Adedoja said, “The man is not a member of Amotekun. I learnt that he is a member of the OPC. He didn’t even apply to join Amotekun. He doesn’t have a uniform. He is not one of us.”

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The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Olugbenga Fadeyi, confirmed the killings.

He said, “The case that was reported at Mapo Police Station was an allegation against one Sikiru Apanpa that he led some OPC men to attack and kill a 26-year-old-man, Delokun Akin, on December 15, and one Azeez Hammed, aged 30, at his home at Akala Road, OriEru on December 14, for refusing to join the OPC.

The scene was visited by the police, but family members refused autopsies and they have since buried the corpses according to Islamic rites. An investigation has commenced and it is being intensified.”

(ii) “PASTOR ARRAIGNED FOR ALLEGED DEFILEMENT OF

FIVE-YEAR-OLD EBONYI PUPIL”

“The Ebonyi State Police Command on Friday arraigned a 45-year-old man, Christopher Ebenyi, for allegedly defiling a five-year-old pupil in Ebonyi State.

The defendant was said to have gone to the victim’s house to sell some immune booster drugs to her mother when the incident took place.

The victim’s mother was said to have gone out to buy some items when Ebenyi allegedly took advantage of the girl.

The mother, who spoke to “PUNCH Metro” on condition of anonymity, said, “The pastor came to our house to sell some drugs to me. Before he came, I had it in mind to get some things for the house. So, I left him and my daughter to go and buy those things.

When I got back home, I saw the pastor inserting his fingers in my daughter’s private parts. I shouted and he said it was the devil. I called people, who came. around and beat him up. Eventually, he was arrested.”

The defendant confessed to the crime.

In his confessional statement, he said, “I am Pastor Christopher Ebenyi. I am from Eziulo in the Ishielu Local Government Area. I know the victim at Convent in Abakaliki. I got to their house and called her; she came and I touched her private parts.”

He was arraigned on one count of indecent assault before the magistrate’s court.

The police prosecutor, ASP Mathias Eze, told the court that the offence was punishable under Section 222 of the Criminal Code, Cap. 33, Vol 1, Laws of Ebonyi State of Nigeria, 2009.

The charge read, “That you, Christopher Ebenyi, on December 15, 2020, on Nsi Road, Abakaliki, in the Abakaliki Magisterial District, did finger the vagina of one (name withheld) aged five, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 222 of the Criminal Code, Cap. 33, Vol. 1, Laws of Ebonyi State of Nigeria, 2009.”

The counsel for the defendant, C.F. Ogbonnaya, applied for his bail, which the prosecuting counsel opposed on the grounds that he might run away.

The Chief Magistrate, Mrs NnennaOnuoha, granted the defendant bail in the sum of N50,000 with one surety in like sum.

According to Onuoha, the defendant must be resident within the jurisdiction of the court.

She adjourned the matter till January 28, 2021, for trial.”

(iii) “TWO ARRESTED FOR GANG-RAPING, FILMING OGUN

19-YEAR-OLD GIRL”

“Men of the Ogun State Police Command have arrested two suspects for allegedly gang-raping a 19-year-old girl and filming her nude.

The suspects — Damilare Oyeniyi, 30, and Emmanuel Okori, 20 — reportedly committed the crime on December 12, 2020, in the Sango area of the state.

They were arrested four days later by policemen attached to the Sango Divisional Police Office.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the incident in a statement on Sunday.

Oyeyemi explained that the suspects were arrested following a report lodged at the Sango Police Station by the victim.

He said the teenager reported that Oyeniyi and Okori, who were her neighbours, dragged her into the room of one of them, stripped her naked, filmed her nude and took turns to rape her several times.

The police spokesman said, “Upon the report, the DPO Sango Division, CSP Godwin Idehai, detailed his detectives to go after the suspects and bring them to book.

The investigative effort of the detectives paid off on December 16, 2020, when the duo were eventually arrested.

On interrogation, the two suspects confessed to the crime.

They confessed that they videoed her nude, which they used to threaten her not to report or else the video would be posted on social media.

The state Commissioner of Police, Edward Ajogun, has ordered the immediate transfer of the suspects to the Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Labour Unit of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for further investigation and prosecution.”