By Agboola Bayo Ibadan
A dismissed police inspector and a soldier attached to 2 Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army, Herbert Mbachu (55 ), Corporal Sikiru Balogun (46), and seven others have been arrested by the Oyo state Police Command over alleged armed robbery . Oyo state Police Commissioner, Mr. Abiodun Odude, stated yesterday in Ibadan while briefi ng journalists on the activities of the command at its Eleyele Police headquarters’.
Th e CP declared that the arrested suspects specialised in hijacking fuel laden trucks on highways. He asserted that the dismissed Police Inspector, Army Corporal, the leader of the gang ,Johnson Precious (45), Lawal Olalekan (26), Sodiq Onifade (26), Timothy Ayodele (53), Oluwadare Segun (30), Gabriel Olanrewaju (39), and Gbadegesin Olawale (45) were arrested with N1.2million cash, two Honda Accord cars with registration numbers AKD 74 BH , and LSD 680 ES , and one Nokia C-200 cell phone He stated that until their arrest, the suspects had operated in Ojoo, Iwo Road, Lagos-Ibadan expressway and other parts of the state, snatching trucks conveying petroleum product to various destinations across the country.
” From 2016 till date, no fewer than six of such trucks had been hijacked by this notorious gang whose members include a dismissed police inspector and a soldier both whom often operated using the military camoufl age and police uniform”, he said.
Odude stressed that “in one of their latest operations , the suspects on April 4, 2017 at about 0800 hours waylaid a fuel laden DAF tanker with registration number APC 937 XB at a bad portion of the road in Salsa , Ojoo area of the state and snatched the vehicle with thirty-three thousand litres of petroleum from the driver whom they abducted to an unknown destination but was dropped off afterwards.
“Discreet investigation carried out by the Special Anti-robbery Squad led to the arrest of one of the suspects, Sodiq Onifade , from whom the victim’s handset was recovered. His arrest and subsequent confession led to the arrest of other members of gang at their various criminal hideouts.” Olude, however, said in the past two weeks, no fewer than 34 suspected armed robbers were arrested in Oyo state