Ogbomoso Kidnapping: Police Doing Shoddy Job, Suspects Still At Large — Seriki

The Seriki Fulani of Ogbomoso, Umar Guruma, has alleged that the Oyo State Police Command is doing a shoddy job in parading the perpetrators of the recent abductions in the town.

The police command had on Friday paraded the suspects in the kidnap of Christopher Bakare, the farm manager at Alao Akala's Farm and Abdulrasheed Oladoye, the owner of a private hospital in Gbede, Abdulrasheed Oladoye, in Jabata and Gbede respectively, both in Surulere local government.

Eight men (all Fulani) were paraded by the police in connection with the separate incidents along with nine others alleged of committing similar offences in some parts of the Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State on Friday.

Guruma maintained that what the police did was tantamount to overzealousness.

He accused the police of arresting members of his community who are not criminals.

"You did not arrest these people, some of them are our people including my elder brother. Our people wrote down the names of some of them, which were submitted to you so you can investigate them and the second day you went to parade them as criminals who perpetrated the abductions. It is not genuine, it is not real.

“When these happened our people began discrete investigations leading to the compilation of names of some suspects, informing their vigilante group.

"There are three prime suspects, who are now at large – they are Aiki, Busari and Mama-G. They lived in Gbede-Jabata axis.

“Aiki was in fact brought before Sarkin Fulani Igbon, who has his house on Jabataland, for interrogation, but the Seriki was sloppy and the man escaped from him. That landed him in trouble and that was why he was picked up by the police instead.

“About four others were handed over in similar circumstances these are some of the people paraded.

“On Tuesday, the OC Monitoring and Head of Anti-Kidnapping Squad called me that the name of my elder brother – Umar Abubakar – was also submitted. But my brother was not even in Ogbomoso, he was in Ogun State at the time being a truck apprentice.

“I told my mum about it and we called him that they mentioned his name in connection with the kidnapping. He said never and so, we advised him to come back so that he could be investigated and got his name cleared.

“And he came. If he is guilty he would have fled. I do not dispute that he could be stubborn when he is drunk but outside that he behaves himself well. He is not a criminal. I took him to the police myself. The second day they went to parade him as a kidnapper. Sarkin Fulani Gbede also personally took his son to the police after his name was mentioned. His son (Mustapha Buguma) agreed that he should be investigated.

“Don’t forget l said three were actually real suspects, but they had escaped and were actually given out by our people. So, the police now arrested Sarkin Fulani Igbon (Aliu Jafaru) in place of Aiki, and the fathers of Busari and Mama-G in their places, but they went to parade them as criminals. It’s not genuine, let’s be realistic," Guruma lamented.

"About three days to the Jabata kidnapping, he (Aiki) was seen with some four strange men mounting bags at their backs in the area. If they have nothing to hide they would not have run away, they would have submitted themselves for investigations like my brother and others," he said.

Guruma stressed that his life is now in danger because he is now been targeted, appealling to security agents to conduct thorough investigations of those in their custody and go after the real suspects.