By Enani Benson
Police detectives are now investigating
how guns allocated
to some of its slain men got
into the hands of a 22-year-old
polytechnic student.
The suspect, Gbenga Olawale,
was arrested in Sango
Ota, Ogun State, near Lagos,
with two AK-47 rifles and two
double barrel guns while trying
to bury the weapons in a bush
apparently for safekeeping.
The serial numbers on the
AK-47 guns were found to correlate
with weapons allocated
to a deceased policeman attached
to a mobile police unit
in Lagos and a police investigator
attached to the State Criminal
Investigations Department
(SCID) Panti, Yaba, Lagos.
Both policemen had reportedly
lost their lives to armed
robbers who made away with
their guns.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police
(DCP) in charge of State Criminal Investigation
Department (SCID) Panti, Yaba,
Lagos, Sam Damilola Adegbuyi has urged
Nigerians to develop a spirit of confidence
and trust in the police.
In a chart with WESTERN POST in his
office recently, Adegbuyi, said it was time
the Nigerian public eschewed the idea
of seeing the police from a negative and
discomforting perspective.
He explained that the lack of confidence
in the police on the part of the public put
so many citizens off from providing useful
information to the police and therefore
discouraged the mission of the police to
maintain law and order and fight crime.
He said: “The idea and orientation that
people have about the police in the country
is not good, people should start realising
that every policeman is like any other individual
in the country. We are like any other
Nigerians and people have to start having a
positive attitude to the police.
“When I became boss of the state CID
initially I was not having information but
now I get information from people because
of the confidence they repose in me. People
call me to somewhere and sometimes I get
information before it happens.
“The average Nigerians sees the police
as corrupt, and people who suppress the
truth. In the spirit of rebranding, it should
not be so; that is the wrong orientation
right from the beginning and that is not
encouraging at all to the police”.
He noted that once the people’s mindset
and attitude about the police changed, it
would go a long way in affecting the force.
He advised that Nigerians should fully
embrace the ongoing rebranding of the Nigeria
Police Force initiated by the Inspector
General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Dikko
the weapons in a shallow pit in a thick
bush beside a road leading to one of the
nearby rural communities in Sango Ota.
It was learnt that the serial numbers
on the weapons indicated that they
belonged to the Nigeria Police.
“The commercial motorcyclist alerted
policemen from the Area Command
Headquarters at Sango Ota who were on
patrol duty. Olawale was apprehended,
the weapons recovered from where
they were buried after which he was
taken into custody,” a police source told
WESTERN POST.
According to the source, “He (the suspect)
said, their gang’s modus operandi,
involves hiding their guns in unfarmed
bushes around Sango Ota and Ifo after
their operations until a new target is
identified and a date and time fixed for
the next outing. Sometimes they even
hide the guns in the neighborhoods
where they had operated to ward off
suspicions while making good their escape,
only to return days later to retrieve
them. He confessed he was burying
the guns after an outing when he was
arrested”.
On the source of the guns, the police
source revealed that the AK47 rifles
had been identified as having last been
in the possession of a deceased officer
(name withheld) attached to a Police
Mobile Unit (MOPOL) in Lagos, and a
late Police Investigation Officer (also
withheld) at the State Criminal Investigation
Department (SCID) Panti, Yaba,
Lagos. Armed bandits reportedly killed
both men and their weapons stolen.
The Ogun State Police Command
spokesman Muyiwa Adejobi, a Deputy
Superintendent of Police (DSP),
declined to speak on the issue when
contacted on the telephone, saying
we should wait till investigations are
The suspect, who was recently transferred
from Sango Ota Police Division to the State
Police Command in Eleweran, Abeokuta,
had confessed to being a student of the
Lagos State Polytechnic.
But on further investigation, the police discovered
that he was a member of a notorious
gang that specialised in robbing people in
Sango Ota.
Police sources told WESTERN POST that
the suspect was arrested after a commercial
motorcyclist sighted Olawale burying
the weapons in a shallow pit in a thick
bush beside a road leading to one of the
nearby rural communities in Sango Ota.
It was learnt that the serial numbers
on the weapons indicated that they
belonged to the Nigeria Police.
“The commercial motorcyclist alerted
policemen from the Area Command
Headquarters at Sango Ota who were on
patrol duty. Olawale was apprehended,
the weapons recovered from where
they were buried after which he was
taken into custody,” a police source told
WESTERN POST.
According to the source, “He (the suspect)
said, their gang’s modus operandi,
involves hiding their guns in unfarmed
bushes around Sango Ota and Ifo after
their operations until a new target is
identified and a date and time fixed for
the next outing. Sometimes they even
hide the guns in the neighborhoods
where they had operated to ward off
suspicions while making good their escape,
only to return days later to retrieve
them. He confessed he was burying
the guns after an outing when he was
arrested”.
On the source of the guns, the police
source revealed that the AK47 rifles
had been identified as having last been
in the possession of a deceased officer
(name withheld) attached to a Police
Mobile Unit (MOPOL) in Lagos, and a
late Police Investigation Officer (also
withheld) at the State Criminal Investigation
Department (SCID) Panti, Yaba,
Lagos. Armed bandits reportedly killed
both men and their weapons stolen.
The Ogun State Police Command
spokesman Muyiwa Adejobi, a Deputy
Superintendent of Police (DSP),
declined to speak on the issue when
contacted on the telephone, saying
we should wait till investigations are
