BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
No fewer than 14 persons, including some teenagers, have been arrested by the men of the Osun State Police Command for allegedly terrorising innocent members of the public and robbing them of their belongings.
Some of the suspects were also alleged of defrauding a herder.
Eleven of the men, namely Adejoroye Hammed, Mutiu Hammed, Jide Dare, Ogunniran Feranmi, Ayodeji Samson, Olayinka Damilola, Olabosipo Afeez, Adejoke Taofeek, Babatunde Ayomide, Bolatito Sunday and Owolabi Hammed, were said to be members of a secret cult engaging in smoking of Indian hemp and causing crisis in the town.
According to an affidavit in support of a motion filed before an Osogbo Magistrate’s Court by the Investigative Police Officer in the matter, Inspector Kazeeem Olaoye, the suspects committed the crime on November 14, 2002 in Osogbo.
Olaoye said that the young men were arrested for conspiracy, being members of unlawful society, unlawful possession of dangerous weapons and conduct likely to cause breach of peace.
The IPO said that “On the 14th of November, 2022, upon information that some group of persons suspected to be members of unlawful society were gathered at Isale-Osun area, Osogbo, smoking weeds suspected to be Indian hemp, terrorising innocent people and forcefully dispossessing them of their properties, the police swung into action and arrested the respondents with some dangerous weapons and weeds suspected to be Indian hemp.”
In a related development, the police nabbed three men, Adesokan Yakubu, aged 32; Fatai Abiodun, 27; and Azeez Famoriyo, 31; for allegedly defrauding a herdsman, Muhammadu Saidu, to the tune of N3,800,000.
Olaoye said that the trio conspired to rob the herder of the said sum under the pretense that they would sell some cows to him sometime in September, 2022.
The suspects were later arrested on November 15, 2022.
He told the court, “Sometimes in September, 2022, the complainant, Muhammadu Nuhu Saidu, a farmer dealing in cow rearing in Iragberi town of Osun State, was hoodwinked by the respondents and others now at large who presented themselves to him as livestock farmers and the sum of N3, 800,000 was fraudulently collected from him with the pretense of selling cows to him but absconded with the money and blocked all means of communication between them.”
The IPO urged the court to grant that the suspects be remanded in police custody pending when their accomplices would be arrested and investigations concluded.
According to him, a police team would be traveling to Lagos and Oyo states to effect the arrest of the fleeing suspects.
Magistrate A. Adeyeba granted the motions, ordering that the 14 suspects be remanded for two weeks after which they would be arraigned in court.
