Former Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, Rt. Hon. Joko Pelumi and 49 others believed to be his political thugs have been arrested for the alleged murder of a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Akingboju Akindele and the abduction of an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP).
DSP Akindele, attached to the Anti-Cultism unit of the Lagos State Police Command was murdered when he led a team from his unit to Ijede area of Ikorodu to effect the arrest of four wanted cultists who had been on the police wanted list.
After the arrest, DSP Akindele and his team were leading the cultists to their office when some members of the cult group ambushed them.
The cultists shot dead DSP Akindele, collected his rifle and abducted an ASP, but on their way to the bush where they were to bury the ASP alive, he manoeuvred and escaped, hid in the bush and monitored where the hoodlums buried the rifle.
Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, who briefed the press on the arrest , said ,on October 27, a team of Anti Cultism policemen attached to Area M, Ijede, Ikorodu, were attacked while trying to effect the arrest of some suspected cultists, in the process, the police officer, DSP Akindele, was killed, While a Police ASP was abducted.
Edgal said the investigation into the case led to the arrest of 49 suspects including a former Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Jokotola Pelumi.
He said the suspects were being investigated by the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Panti Street, Yaba.
He said the suspects were arrested inside Hon. Pelumi’s house at Ijede area of Ikorodu, where they hid after killing the police officer.
According to him, when the news of the dastardly killing of the policeman got to him, he quickly mobilised policemen and they traced the hoodlums to the former speaker’s house and they were surprised to meet 49 cultists there , jubilating over the killing of the police officer.
“The question is why would cultists who committed the murder of a DSP be doing in the speaker’s house ?.
Why would he harbour cultists and thugs in his house and why would he shield such persons that killed a senior police officer in his house? This is serious and we will not take it likely. We may charge the speaker for accessory to the fact of murder while other suspects will be charged for murder” he said.
The CP warned that the era of killing policemen is gone and that no one would kill a policeman and go scot free as the police would hunt him to anywhere.
One of the suspects who claimed to be an aid to the speaker said, though, he was arrested while doing his house chores but that some people ran to the house saying that the police were after them.
A police officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the abducted ASP, after miraculously escaping from his abductors, hid inside the bush to monitor the activities of the hoodlums and saw where they buried the rifle seized from the deceased DSP.
“It was the ASP that took use to the waterside where they buried the rifle. It was the ASP that led us to where we recovered the police gun. A preliminary investigation showed that the gang was a formidable one that has held Ikorodu and its environs to the jugular.
They have been operating with absolute confidence as they have big-time politicians behind them. One would have expected those who murdered the police officer to be on the run, but they stayed put in the former Speaker house relaxed and enjoying themselves” , he added.
