The Ogun State Police Command has said it arrested one Kehinde Jelili, aka Oluomo, for allegedly killing a Point-of-Sale (PoS) terminal operator, Abiodun Odebunmi, and an Uber driver, Idowu Ademiluyi.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, said detectives from the Command trailed Jelili for about three months before his eventual arrest.
Oyeyemi said Jelili was arrested after he returned to the state from Cotonou in Benin Republic where he had gone to attend the trial of embattled Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho.
The police said Jelili was arrested with three other suspected serial killers identified as Abiodun Akinola, Johnson Fakeye, and Jamiu Akinola. They had allegedly set ablaze Odebunmi’s remains after stealing N4m from him.
Three vehicles — a Toyota Camry, a Toyota Corolla and a Toyota Rave 4 — whose owners were murdered, were recovered from the gang.
Oyeyemi said the suspects were arrested on Wednesday following a report lodged at the Onipanu divisional police headquarters by a PoS attendant, Aanu Salaudeen.
Suspect arrested in Ogun border town
The PPRO explained that Salaudeen, who worked for Odebunmi, reported that her boss left their office at Aparadija the previous day to meet a customer.
Odebunmi was said to have gone missing since then.
Oyeyemi, in a statement titled, ‘Serial Killers Who Specialized In Robbing And Killing PoS And Uber Operators Arrested In Ogun’, said, “According to Salaudeen, they had earlier done a transaction of N1.5m with the person who invited her boss the previous day, and it was the same person who called her boss to meet him at Oju-Ore to do another PoS transaction of N4m.
“Upon the report, the policemen at Onipanu commenced investigation into the sudden disappearance of the man. Their efforts paid off when the burnt body of the victim was discovered in an uncompleted building at the Arobieye area of Ota without any trace of his assailants.
“The CSP Femi Olabode-led homicide team, in compliance with the CP’s directive, embarked on technical and intelligence-based investigation, which led them to Otun Ekiti in Ekiti State, where the suspect was discovered to be hibernating.
“On getting to Ekiti, the suspect got wind of the presence of the detectives and quickly escaped to Offa in Kwara State.
“With determination to apprehend him, the team continued trailing him and they later got information that he was in Benin Republic, where he had gone to attend the court session of Chief Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho, and that he would soon be coming to Nigeria.
“Having got the information about the day he would be returning to Nigeria, the team laid ambush for him and got him arrested at a boundary community between Ogun and Lagos states.
“On interrogation, Kehinde Jelili, who claimed to be a native of Apomu in Osun State, confessed to killing the victim.
“He confessed further that he deliberately lured the victim to Ota, where he and his gang members were waiting for him with the money he was asked to bring, having transacted a N1.5m business with him the previous day, and that they cut him to death with machetes after collecting the money from him. He stated further that they burnt the victim’s body in order to cover their tracks.”
Police trying to paint Yoruba Nation struggle black —Spokesman
Meanwhile, the Communications Manager of Ilana Omo Oodua Worldwide, Maxwell Adeleye, said the police lied, adding that the umbrella body for Yoruba Nation self-determination groups has zero-tolerance for criminality.
The spokesman for the Prof Banji Akintoye-led group said on Friday that there was no way the suspect could have attended Igboho’s court sessions in Benin Republic because only the lawyers and some family members were allowed inside the court.
Adeleye said, “We commend the officers of the Nigeria Police Force for a job well done. We have zero tolerance for criminality in the Yoruba Nation. Our agitation is a peaceful one and anyone at our rallies holding guns or perpetrating violence is not part of us and such a person should be arrested.”
“The mention of Chief Sunday Adeyemo by the police is unnecessary. Instead of trying to tarnish his image or Yoruba Nation agitators, we advise the police to face its tattered image. We are aware that the head of the intelligence unit (DCP Abba Kyari) is an accomplice in a fraud perpetrated by Abbas Hushpuppi. The police should face its bad image and not try to give our struggle a bad name.
“At the rally in Ojota, the police shot and killed a young lady who will be buried today. The police came out to say it was an old corpse and that they only fired rubber bullets.
“Later on, they said the corpse was not discovered at the venue of the rally and paraded one of us but he was released when the Lagos State Government investigated the matter and said the man had no hand in the matter. That is to tell how the Nigerian Police can lie just to give the peaceful struggle a bad name.
“We witnessed Igboho’s court sessions in Benin Republic. Nobody was allowed inside the courtroom aside from lawyers, Igboho himself and his wife. So, we wonder how the suspect attended the court sessions.
“We commend the officers of the Nigeria Police Force for attempting to rid the society of criminality, However, they should stop trying to give the struggle for self-determination a bad name.”
Igboho, who is wanted in Nigeria for alleged trafficking in arms, has been remanded in a detention facility in Cotonou since his arrest on July 19, 2021, when he tried to board a flight to Germany.
