Head of a traditional masquerade group, Igunuko, in Ifako-Ijaiye, Lagos, Ariyo Elegbede, was among 10 suspects arrested for the death of police sergeant Collins Esiabor, recently.
The cop was allegedly lynched on August 29, 2018, at Ifako-Ijaiye by suspected members of a secret cult, Aiye Confraternity.
A herbalist, Babatunde Rufai, 82, who usually treated gunshot victims, was among those arrested. While the leader of the Igunuko was arrested for allegedly participating in the lynching of the policeman, the herbalist was said to have administered first aid to a member of the pirate gang who mistakenly shot himself in the leg with a police rifle.
Though the head of the masquerade group denied partaking in the murder of the policeman, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, said that he, along with the herbalist, treated the suspect of a gunshot wound before he fled to Ondo State.
Edgal, who paraded the suspects yesterday, said that all the gang members were arrested at their various hideouts in Ifako-Ijaiye, Lagos.
He said that, on the day of the incident at Haruna bus stop, Ifako-Ijaiye, Ogba, a mob, for no reason and without any provocation, attacked a police patrol and vandalized a patrol van stationed there to provide security in the area, leading to the death of Esiabor.
“I promised then that the command would do all to unravel and prosecute those behind the dastardly act. Investigation launched into the incident led to the arrest of the key actors in the crime.
Investigation into the case revealed that the suspects are cultists as attested to by one of them, Ayo, who conveyed the corpse of their late member to the burial site.
On their way, they decided to avenge the death of the deceased on the police patrol team even though it is clear that the police had no physical contact whatsoever with the deceased,” he said.
