From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, Mrs. Ngozi Onadeko, has said the news that 25 persons were kidnapped within 24 hours in Ibarapa area of the state was untrue.
Besides, she paraded four suspected kidnappers that were arrested also in Ibarapa before journalists on Thursday evening. She also paraded 33 other suspects arrested on the allegations of sodomy, armed robbery, pickpocketing, internet fraud and so on.
News had filtered into the town on Thursday afternoon that an 18-seater bus from Abeokuta in Ogun State, transporting passengers along Igboora-Eruwa Road, was attacked by some gunmen and all the 18 passengers in the bus were abducted to unknown destination.
Another seven persons were reportedly kidnapped on Wednesday evening by gunmen, also in Ibarapa. Though the convener of Igangan Development Advocates, Mr. Oladiran Oladokun, said the incidents occurred in Ibarapa, the police boss in the state said the Divisional Police Officer of Igboora and the Area Commander for Ibarapa were with her and they said nothing of such happened.
Onadeko, however, urged all the residents of the state to go about their normal business activities with any fear, adding that members of the public should give credible information to the police to enhance security architecture of the state.
The four suspected kidnappers were in two groups of three and one. The three were arrested on Ayete, the headquarters of Ibarapa North Local Government. They trio were arrested for allegedly kidnapping a farmer, Yanmin Kereku, and collected a ransom of N30,000 from him. The other one suspect was arrested in Eruwa, the headquarters of Ibarapa East Local Government. But they all denied the allegations levelled against them.
Also, the pickpockets and the suspected internet fraudsters were 30 in number. They confessed that they were initially operating in Lagos State and had to relocate to Ibadan, when Lagos became too hot for them.
On getting to Ibadan, according to the police, lodged in one hotel and they divided a themselves into two. One group would go to town to pickpockets, whether the other group would stay back in the hotel and would work on the sim cards of stolen phones to defraud contacts on the victims’ phones.
The suspects also included one Olawuyi Ebenezer, 30, who alleged sodomised two students of two private schools in Ibadan. He claimed to be a teacher and the two boys that he had sexual intercourse with were between 12 and 14 years. He said he did not know what led him into the act.
According to him, he lured the last boy into the act when he invited him to his house Ouse to help him arrange exam scripts. He added that the first boy he sodomised was a student in a private school, where he taught before moving to another school.
