Ogun CP orders arrest of youths who burnt suspected ritual killers to death

The Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole has ordered the arrest of youths who set ablaze two men found with a human head in Oja Odan, Yewa North Local Government Area of the State on Saturday.

Recall that two men, Idowu Afolabi and Johnson Adebiyi, were detained at Oja Odan police station for having a fresh human head in their possession.

But, the youths stormed the police station, broke in and dragged out the two suspects, whom they set on fire in front of the station.

Reacting on Sunday, the Ogun State Police Command said there will be no room for jungle justice in the state, warning the general public that “such barbaric and unlawful action will no longer be tolerated.”

The Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, in a statement on Sunday, confirmed that the two suspected ritualists were arrested and brought to the Oja Odan division by some vigilant and law-abiding members of the public, with allegations that a fresh human head concealed in a sack was seen with them.

He said, “While the suspects were being interrogated in the station, some unscrupulous elements went and mobilized a large number of people who invaded the station aggressively, overwhelmed the police personnel on duty and subsequently hijacked the suspects, beat them to death and set their corpses ablaze.”

Sounding a note of warning, Oyeyemi told those in the habit of taking laws into their hands to desist from such “uncivilized behaviour” as the command will henceforth “deal with whoever carries out such actions in the most decisive manner.”

The PPRO maintained that “a suspect remains a suspect until he/she is convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction, no matter how grievous the crime he suspected to have committed might be.”

He explained that “It is only the court that has the power to impose punishment on anyone found guilty of a crime, not an individual or group of people.”

Therefore, the Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, Oyeyemi “has ordered a full-scale investigation into the incident with the view to bringing to justice those who participated in carrying out the barbaric and unlawful killing of the suspects.”

The CP also appealed to members of the public to have confidence in the nation’s criminal justice system and desist from self-help, saying such is alien to the law of the land.