A seven-member cartel of highway truck hijackers have been smashed by police operatives in Ogun State.
The suspects, made up of five active members, two of whom were dismissed police officers; the criminal receiver cum financier and a readymade buyer, were arrested after a near successful but foiled operation by policemen at Odogbolu Division.
Having succeeded in four previous operations, during which trucks loaded with such goods as pampers, Nutri ‘C’ drinks, Blue Band Margarine and Honey-well flour, all valued at N25,688,000, the last straw that broke the camel’s back was, according to the police, the hijacking of a Blue Band Margarine loaded truck.In a press statement issued by the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Abimbola Oyeyemi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), the gang had on December 8, 2021, at about 3:00 am, barricaded a portion of the Sagamu/Benin Expressway and seized the truck.
The serial hijackers, it was gathered, overpowered both the driver and his motor-boy, took them into the bush and tied them down. It was thereafter, they drove away the truck.
“Their efforts paid-off when the truck was sighted at Nairaland area of the expressway, moving towards Ijebu-Ode Road and unrelentingly gave them ahot chase.
“Three amongst the hoodlums, namely Musa Ibrahim, Shola Abolade and Edwin Ayeye, were arrested, while others escaped in a Honda space wagon car”, the police spokesman revealed.
In the morning of the same day, the PPRO further stated, “the escaped ones contacted a lawyer, changing the narratives that police had unlawfully arrested some of their friends.
“They engaged the service of the lawyer to secure their release from police custody. On getting to the office of the DPO, he insisted that the lawyer should produce those client’s that engaged him in the service as a pre-requisite to granting those in police custody bail”, the press release stated.
The police image maker said, on that premise, “the lawyer, there and then, called them to come to the station, as the case was about to be settled. The duo of Nwafor Onyebuchi and Idakole Benjamin who were later identified as dismissed police sergeants, then came around and were subsequently arrested by the DPO and his men.
“On interrogation, the suspects confessed to have actually committed the crime of barricading the road, and hijacked the Blue Band loaded truck after tying down the driver and his motor-boy”, Oyeyemi said, adding that, they were later transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for discreet investigation on the order of the Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole.
Crime Puzzle gathered that, it was at the SCIID, the suspects confessed to have, in the past, hijacked four trucks and made away with various goods, including pampers, Nutri ‘C’ drinks, Blue Band and Honey-well flour, estimated to be N25,688,000
“They confessed further that they have a readymade buyer, in one Alhaji Jamiu who lives in Kwara State.
The said Alhaji Jamiu was traced to Erin-Ile in Kwara State, where he was arrested.
Through the same process, the Fang’s major receiver and financier, Ikem Ejimofor was traced to Jakande Estate, in Lagos and also arrested.
In his own confessional statement, Alhaji Jamiu owned up to the effect that it was his truck the suspects used in blocking the road while carrying out the last operation, even as
Ikem Ejimofor, on his part, confessed being the receiver of all such goods, saying he always bought them at very cheap rates.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of police has commended his men for their painstaking investigation and has directed that the suspect be arraigned in court without delay.
The PPRO gave the names of all the suspects
as Onyegbuchi Nwafor; Idakole Benjamin; Ibrahim Musa; Abolade Shola; Ikem Ejimofor; Adebayo Jamiu and Ayeye Edwin
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