The Oodua People’s Congress, Oyo State chapter, has called for the release of three of its members arrested by the police in Oyo State.
Coordinator of OPC in Oyo State, Chief Rotimi Olumo, made the call in Ibadan on Wednesday.
The three OPC members were part of the group that arrested Iskilu Wakili, the alleged Fulani mastermind behind the spate of kidnapping and bandit attacks in the Ibarapa area of Oyo State.
They have since been held by the state police command on the charges of arson and murder.
Olumo said that OPC followed all necessary legal processes in arresting Wakili, who, according to him, had constituted himself as a stronghold whose domain Nigerian security operatives dare not enter.
“We in the OPC, seeing this, volunteered to go into the forest as a sort of assistance to the police and we went there successfully to arrest him. We handed him to the police.
“We, however, were surprised that the police turned around to pounce on three of our members who had gone to honour the invitations extended to them by the police.”
Olumo said that it had come to the knowledge of OPC that Wakili would soon be released from custody.
The OPC leader said he was calling for the release of his members because they have done nothing wrong in arresting a kidnapper.
Olumo warned that releasing Wakili could lead to crises in the state, adding that criminal activities have returned to Ibarapa area, as Wakili’s boys “are fully on ground in that region.”
He appealed to the Oyo State government and traditional rulers in the South-West to intervene.