Police Arrest Fmr. Speaker, Others over Death of DSP
The Lagos State Police Command has arrested a former Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, Joko Pelumi and 42 others over the death of a Deputy Superintendent of Police ( DSP), Akingboju Akindele and the subsequent abduction attempt of an Assistant Superintendent of Police ( ASP).
The police command alleged that the 42 suspects arrested alongside the former speaker were believed to be his political thugs.
Prior to his death, Akindele was attached to the Anti- Cultism unit of the Lagos State Command and he was leading a team to Ijede area of Ikorodu to effect the arrest of four wanted cultists, who had been on the police wanted list, when he was killed in cold blood.
After the arrest, the DSP and his team were leading the cultists to their station, when some other members of the cult group ambushed them and engaged the police in a shootout.
The cultists shot Akindele dead, collected his rifle and abducted an ASP, but on their way to the bush where they planned to bury the ASP alive, he managed to escape.
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, were attacked while trying to effect arrest of some suspected cultists.
Edgal said investigation into the case led to the arrest of 49 suspects including Pelumi.
He said the suspects were being investigated by the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department ( SCIID), Panti, Yaba.
He said the suspects were arrested inside Pelumi's house at Ijede area of Ikorodu, where they hid after killing the police officer.
According to him, when the news of dastardly killing of the policeman got to him, he quickly mobilised and his men traced the hoodlums to the former speaker's house and they were surprised to meet 42 cultists jubilating.
He said: "The question is what would cultists who committed the murder of a DSP be doing in the speaker's house. Why would he habour cultists and thugs in his house?
"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. "
The CP warned that the era of killing policemen was gone, adding that no one would kill a policeman and go scot- free as the police would hunt him to anywhere.
Preliminary investigation showed that the gang was a formidable one that has held Ikorodu and its environs to the jugular.
They had been operating with absolute confidence as they have big time politicians who were allegedly backing them.