No fewer than 13 suspected criminals were on Tuesday, paraded by the Kwara State Police Command for various offences committed in the state.
Ebunoluwarotimi Adelesi, the state Commissioner of Police, while parading the suspects, mentioned among them, the suspected kidnappers, who killed three victims in the course of their operations during police rescue mission in Isanlu-Isin and Ijara-Isin forests of Kwara South Senatorial District.
The Police boss, while giving an account at the state Police headquarters in Ilorin on Tuesday, identified the dead victims who were allegedly killed by the suspected kidnappers as Kayode Musa, Abubakar Haruna, and Ajide Abiodun while identified the masterminds of the dastardly act as Haruna Nuhu (28), Umaru Shehu (25), Maazu Masaje (35), Sanni Masaje (21), Mohammed Usman (20), and Buba Okeode.
The CP disclosed that exhibits recovered from the suspects are five cutlasses, criminal charms, assorted phone sets, one locally made iron pistol with two live ammunition and one expended ammunition of a revolver pistol.
The CP said, “On Thursday, July 13, 2023, at approximately 1700HRS, one Abubakar Haruna AKA Muslim and one Kayode Musa ‘M’ were driving from Oke-Onigbin to Isanlu-Isin in a Toyota Camry, when a group of armed men suspected to be Bororo Fulani emerged from the bush, abducted them and disappeared into the bush.
“While effort to rescue the victims were in progress, On 21/7/2023, at about 0630hrs, a team of police officers, local vigilantes, and hunters already on search of the victims were met with hails of gunshots.
“In a bid to escape being captured, the suspects shot and killed their two victims and escaped into the bush, some of them with bullet injuries while Ajide Abiodun Olaoluwa one of the victims was rescued alive.
“In furtherance of the effort by the police to get the kidnappers arrested, the police, hunters and vigilante stormed the forests between Ijara-Isin and Isanlu-Isin where intelligence revealed that the kidnappers were hiding and got the above suspects arrested with their weapons,” the CP added.
However, the Police boss also paraded five other suspects for criminal conspiracy and theft.
The suspects are;Awokunle Gideon, Yahusa Bashiru, Nuhu Ali, Usman Yahaya and Aliyu Ibrahim,
He said the suspects were allegedly caught transporting suspected stolen bundles of cable wires along Tanke Area of Ilorin metropolis, adding that they will be charged to court on completion of investigation.
Also paraded at the headquarters were one Usman Abdulkadir and Ibrahim Saheed, for allegedly stealing a motorcycle while Ibrahim Saheed, a staff of the Kwara state Traffic Management Agency, KWATMA, was arrested for receiving the alleged stolen motorcycle.