Operatives of the Ogun State Police Command have arrested seven members of a syndicate who specialised in hijacking trucks loaded with companies’ goods along Sagamu-Ijebu-Ode Expressway.
The spokesman of the Command, Abimbola Oyeyemi, revealed this in a statement he issued on Tuesday in Abeokuta.
Oyeyemi gave the names of the all male syndicate members as Onyegbuchi Nwafor, Idakole Benjamin, Ibrahim Musa, Abolade Shola, Ikem Ejimofor, Adebayo Jamiu and Ayeye Edwin.
He said they were arrested following a distress call received at Odogbolu Divisional Police Headquarters on December 8, 2021 at about 3am that a gang of armed robbers had blocked the expressway and hijacked a truck loaded with blue band products of Unilever Nigeria Limited.
The robbers overpowered the driver and motor boy, took them to the bush and tied them down there before taking away the truck.
On the strength of the distress call, the Divisional Police Officer, Odogbolu Division, SP Awoniyi Adekunle, quickly led his patrol team to the scene, but the hoodlums had moved away from there before their arrival.
They started tracing the hoodlums based on the description of the hijacked truck.
Their efforts paid-off when the truck was sighted at Nairaland area of the expressway moving towards Ijebu-Ode Road.
They were given hot chase and three amongst the hoodlums, namely: Ibrahim, Abolade and Ayeye, were arrested, while others escaped in a Honda space wagon car.
Oyeyemi said in the morning of the same day, the escaped ones contacted a lawyer and informed him that police had unlawfully arrested some of their friends.
They engaged the services of the lawyer to solicit for their release from police custody.
On getting to the office of the DPO, the lawyer was told to produce those who briefed him about the case before those in police custody can be released.
The lawyer there and then called them to come as the case is about to be settled.
The duo of Onyebuchi and Benjamin, who was later identified as a dismissed Police Sergeant, then came around.
They were subsequently arrested by the DPO and his men.
On interrogation, the suspects confessed to being the one that blocked the expressway and hijacked the blue band loaded truck from the driver after tying down the driver and his motor boy.
The suspects were transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for discreet investigation on the order of the Commissioner of Police, CP Lanre Bankole.
On getting to the SCIID, the suspects after thorough investigation confessed that they have so far hijacked four trucks loaded with different types of goods such as pampers, Nutri C, Blue Band and Honeywell flour.
The value of the hijacked goods so far is estimated to be N25.688 million.
They confessed further that they have a readymade buyer in one Alhaji Jamiu, who lives in Kwara State.
The said Alhaji Jamiu was traced to Erin-Ile in Kwara State, where he was promptly arrested.
Their major receiver and financier, Ikem Ejimofor, was traced to Jakande Estate in Lagos, where he was also arrested.
While Alhaji Jamiu confessed that it was his own truck the suspects used in blocking the road when the last truck was hijacked, Ejimofor on his part confessed being the receiver of all the robbed goods, which he bought at very ridiculous prices.
Bankole, who commended his men for their painstaking investigation, has directed that the suspect must be arraigned in court without delay.
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