Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
The Edo State Police Command, yesterday, paraded 116 suspects who were arrested for crime ranging from armed robbery, cultism, COVID19 palliatives looting and curfew violation.
The 10 other were inmates who escaped from the Correctional Centre in Sepale road and Oko Correctional Centre, Airport Road, both in Benin City, Edo State making a total number of 126 paraded by the command.
Addressing Journalists during the parade, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Johnson Babatunde Kokumo said among the escapees being paraded, some of them went back to their old life and were rearrested.
He decried the hijacking of what was meant to be a peaceful protest of EndSARS by hoodlums stressing that there is no nexus between agitation and looting of people’s property.
Kokumo said the police will do everything within its power to restore the confidence earlier reposed on them and that given the directive of the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu to reclaim the territory and restore peace and confidence to the people of the state, the command has begun to do exactly that.
One of the escapees, Henry Aladi who was accused of stealing a Camry Car while trying to find his way back to his village, denied his involvement.
He alleged that he was given a ride while trying to find his way back to his village and that when the police accosted them and asked for the car particulars, the man who gave the ride, ran away and abandoned his car, leaving him behind in the car adding that, that was how he was rearrested.
For Friday Etim, he said he has been in the Oko Correctional Centre for over four years and that his offense was that he took oil palm fruits from where he worked at Okomu.
He said his intention was not to have escaped from the Correctional Centre.
He said he saw his fellow inmates running out and he decided to join them and that he also personally turned himself in.
Another suspect, Mrs. Uwagboe Efe said she was arrested and brought to the police station for violating the curfew imposed on the state by the state government.
She said she has been detained in the police cell for days and has not been able to see her three children.
Also, Mr. Fidelis Iyamu, age, 76, who is an ex-service man, decried the inhuman treatment meted to him by the police just as he denied involving in any criminal act.
He said he was arrested for violating the imposed curfew in the state.
