The police in Oyo State, on Thursday, paraded suspected killers of a US based Ogbomoso born hotelier, Gbenga Owolabi.
They were paraded alongside other suspected criminals for their alleged involvement in various crime cases such as kidnapping, armed robbery, among others within the state.
The Commissioner of Police (CP), Adebowale Williams, who paraded the suspects at the police headquarters, Eleyele Ibadan, identified the suspects to include Namaru Abubakar, Saliu Abubakar, and Usman Abubakar. The police boss said they were arrested based on credible information provided by one of their victims
Recall that the late hotelier, Gbenga Owolabi was abducted on July 28, 2022 and was killed on Tuesday, August 2, 2022 after a ransom of N5m was paid.
According to the CP, on September 16, 2021 at about 0715hrs, one Waheed Hammed, a cattle dealer in Ogbomoso town while returning from his cattle ranch located at Adafila village, via Ogbomoso, was intercepted at a desolate spot by some notorious kidnapping syndicate that have been terrorising members of the public in Ogbomoso and its neighbouring towns.
Adebowale stated that the members of the kidnapping syndicate who were reportedly armed with AK-47 riffles, cutlasses and some other dangerous weapons, attacked the said Waheed Hammed and later took him into a thick forest where they contacted his relative and demanded for N100m ransom before he would be released.
The police chief said upon learning about the incident through a written petition, he directed that all available resources be deployed in rescuing the victim unhurt with his abductors arrested, hence the transfer to the command’s monitoring unit.
“Sequel to this directive, operatives attached to the monitoring unit swung into action and in the process of combing the forest alongside local hunters and vigilantes, they stumbled upon where the victim was held captive and rescued him unhurt.
The victim narrated his ordeal in the hands of his abductors and explained that while the kidnappers were negotiating his ransom, they claimed responsibility for the death of an Ogbomosho hotelier, Gbenga Owolabi (now deceased) and that he (abductee) would suffer a similar fate should his ransom payment process get thwarted by involving the police.
The victim also gave other useful information to the police operatives and this led to the arrest of three members of the kidnapping syndicate who identified themselves as NAMARU ABUBAKAR ‘M’, SALIU ABUBAKAR ‘M’ and USMAN ABUBAKAR ‘M’.
“The suspects explained in detail how one Mohammadu (now at large) who happened to be a former employee (cattle herder) of the victim, invited them and some other Fulani cattle herders from Kebbi State to carry out the criminal activity. Investigation is still in progress to track down other members of the criminal syndicate” the police boss said.
