Amotekun arrests 23 kidnappers, robbery suspects, others

•Over 100 Nigerians fall victims of N650,000 job scam

Ondo State Security Network, also known as “Amotekun Corps,” has arrested 23 criminal suspects for various criminal activities, including human trafficking to Benin Republic.

The State Commander of the Corps, Chief Adetuni Adeleye, who disclosed this yesterday, while parading the 23 suspects at the Corps headquarters in Akure, said several criminals are going through prosecutions.

He noted that the suspects were involved in criminal activities ranging from kidnapping, robbery, raping, human trafficking and banditry, while 30 suspects had earlier been moved to correctional centres.

The suspected kidnappers are, a-75 year-old Alhaji Ibrahim, his son, Sulaiman Ibrahim, Mohammed Bello, Abdul Saminu and Amadu Sede, who was brutally matcheted by the Ibrahims to conceal their crime; and a fraudster, Idowu Daniel.

The robbery suspects are; Babalola Samuel, Babajide Olalekan, Idowu Olusoji, Akintokun Emmanuel, Austin Sunday, Bala Shedrack, Joseph Babatunde, Adedapo Damilare, Emmanuel Juwon, Akinyemi Femi, Damilare Omodare, Chika Alex and Durojaye Oni.

Also, Adeleye named suspects for sexual offences as, Femi Olagbede and Osuntunde Olorunwa, who committed the crime in Owo, the Headquarters of Owo Local Council, while Pitti Omolade and Ogunbayo Ayorinde are human traffickers, who allegedly duped over 100 persons to the tune of N650,000.

He recounted that his men re-arrested Sede, who was paraded some months ago for kidnapping, but was attacked by kidnapping gang, including the Ibrahims, Bello and Saminu, and was left for dead.

He said: “They attacked him with machetes and guns and assumed that he was dead. We picked him up and took him through different stages of surgeries to bring him to life so that he can pinpoint other members of the kidnapping gang.

“He was able to take us to the hideouts of the other kidnappers after the operation. That particular kidnapping took place in Akoko but by the time we were picking them up four months after, they had migrated to the riverine area of Ondo State with their cows.

“They used these cows to cover up, some of them were in Edo and the riverine area. We also have a number of fraudsters that were able to defraud unsuspecting members of the public of their valuables.”

According to him, the traffickers, Omolade and Ogunbayo took N650,000 from over 100 unsuspecting Nigerians with the promise to get them international jobs in a gold mining company in Benin Republic.

The Amotekun boss said the traffickers, who opened four offices across Nigeria only transported the victims to Benin Republic and abandoned them in a building.

He assured that the agency would not relent on its Operation Clean Up efforts to eradicate crime in the state, stressing that all the suspects would be charged to court after the conclusion of investigations. (The Guardian)