The demolition of a suspected kidnappers’ den at Soka area of Ibadan, Oyo State was stopped midway to allow a team of forensic experts from the police headquarters in Abuja to carry out their investigations.
The order for the demolition was given by Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State on Monday during a visit to the site.
No fewer than 20 decomposed bodies and some emaciated captives were found in the den on Saturday.
Ajimobi, who had hinged the demolition and the clearing of the surrounding forest on the request of the Soka community, also directed environmental health officers to fumigate the area to prevent outbreak of epidemics.
But no sooner had the demolition commenced than the state Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Idabawa, called the Chairman of Oluyole Local Government Area, Ayoade Abass-Aleshinloye, intimating him of the need to suspend the exercise.
A statement issued on Wednesday in Ibadan by Ajimobi’s spokesman, Dr. Festus Adedayo, said: “The Commissioner of Police informed him of the need to stop the exercise to allow the team of forensic experts from the police headquarters in Abuja carry out their investigations.”
The statement said Abass-Aleshinloye was at the site in company with his Ibadan South-West Local Government counterpart, Taoheed Adeleke.
It said the two council chairmen and the General Manager of Ibadan Local Government Property Development Company, Lekan Babalola, were at the site to supervise the exercise.
The police boss, according to the statement, opined that should the exercise be allowed to continue as earlier planned, concrete evidences that would help the police in their investigations would have been destroyed.
The statement, however, said the demolition and the clearing of the forest would resume on Friday when the forensic experts would have completed their investigations.
It said Abass-Aleshinloye and Adeleke promised that efforts would be made to ensure that the speculation about a possible dungeon in the forest was properly investigated and the site cordoned off.
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