- Clerics extort helpless family members with failed prophecies
- Police hide facts of attack from public amid cops’ death speculation
Fresh details have emerged on how a team of six police officers from the Osun State Police Command were ambushed by some suspected gunmen who opened fire on them while on transit.
Some security sources in the state informed The Point that the six police officers were on an operational assignment to Abia State to track down and arrest a deadly fraud syndicate when they were attacked by some gun wielding men in Abia State.
The ambush reportedly happened on Wednesday, February 13, 2024.
It was gathered that the policemen, attached to the Criminal Investigations Department and Anti-Robbery Unit of the Osun State Police Command, were formally dispatched on the operational duty to Abia State by their superiors.
They were reportedly instructed to track down a gang who allegedly defrauded a wealthy man in Osun State of some millions of naira in a failed business deal.
According to the sources, the police officers had been assured of some huge financial compensation by the fraud victim if they successfully apprehend the fleeing criminals and bring them to Osogbo.
The police officers were said to have left for Abia State on Monday, February 12, 2024, a day that is usually declared as sit-at-home by factional Indigenous People of Biafra in the South Eastern parts of Nigeria, but had a stop-over in Asaba, Delta State where they spent the night at a hotel before driving to Abia the next day, Tuesday, April 13 to search for their targets.
Unfortunately, sources said they were ambushed by gunmen, suspected to be IPOB fighters, who were allegedly hired by the fraud gang.
The Point learnt that the police team was led on the operation by a Police Sergeant, Paul Egundeyi.
One of the sources, while claiming that the police officers were overpowered by their attackers after a severe gun duel, argued that five of the six cops were neutralized by the gunmen, while the six officer identified as Sodiq, escaped.
“The truth is that these so called five missing officers have been killed since the day they were attacked but our ogas (authority of Osun Police Command) don’t want to make it public yet. We hear that some suspects who defrauded a big man of some millions of naira escaped to Abia and that is why these officers were asked to track them.
“One thing about this kind of operation that involves a lot of money is that officers who are picked for it will get huge amounts of money as rewards when they return with the suspects. This reward is in millions of naira. That is why you hardly see any officer that will turn down the opportunity.
“What made their attack worse was that they went to the East during the sit-at-home period. They had already tracked one of the suspects and arrested him but he was able to escape. I think the man who escaped must have informed his gang members who mobilized, conniving with some gunmen who laid ambush for the officers.
“Another thing that worked against the officers was because they did not know the terrain very well. So, their attackers knew the routes well and that was why they were able to overpower them after exchanging gunfire with them.
“They were attacked two different times. They escaped the first one narrowly but they were not lucky the second time. It was only Sodiq that escaped, others were killed. Even the white new operational vehicle they took along was driven away by the gunmen,” the source said.
According to another source, “My personal findings revealed that they were attacked by gunmen suspected to be IPOB fighters and the five others were killed in the process while only one of them escaped. The officer who escaped was harboured by some villagers, following the ambush, who gave him accommodation till the following morning.”
Over three months after the incident, police authorities, both in Osun State and at national level, have not come out to give facts of the development to members of the public.
Efforts by the family members of the affected cops to get updates about the supposed investigation of the force on the matter have not yielded any positive results.
“I was at the Police Headquarters and the CID office last Tuesday in Osogbo but it was the same old story. They told me there was no update. I have written a petition alongside other families whose relations have been missing to the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, for over a month now, but, nothing has been done concerning the disappearance of my husband,” Funmilola, the wife of Sergeant Paul Egundeyi, told The Point in an interview.
The State Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Umar-Abba, was said not to have made any official statement on the whereabouts of the missing police officers, leaving the families in the dark.
Sodiq, the officer who reportedly escaped the ambush was unwilling to speak with the families of the missing police officers.
Also, several telephone calls put across to the Police Public Relations Officer of the Osun State Command, Yemisi Opalola, by The Point, were not answered.
Funmilola, the wife of Egundeyi, who nurses a newly born baby, said she has suffered serious loneliness and anxiety as a result of the development, noting that her husband’s whereabouts is a major source of concern to her and every other member of the family.
Devastated by the ugly development, Mrs. Egundeyi said she had made frantic efforts to reach out to others who traveled with her husband for the same assignment but to no avail. Efforts to get a response about her inquiry from the State CID where her husband works proved abortive.
“I need my husband and it is the duty of the Nigeria Police to assist me in searching for him and bringing him to me alive. He is the breadwinner of my family and I am not happy that the Osun State Police abandoned us and keep telling us there is no update each time we go to them to make inquiries.
“Every day, I pray fervently and hope to see my husband return to me safe and sound. It is going to be four months now and no significant information from the police about his whereabouts and those of others,” Funmilola, whose husband left for operational duty a day after their baby’s naming ceremony, said.
Similarly, other family members of the missing police officers have lamented the continuous disappearance of their relations, and the inability of the force and other security agencies to locate them.
A husband to one of the missing police officers, Mr. Ayowole Adekonipekun, a resident of Osogbo, appealed to the Inspector General of Police to help in locating his wife, Corporal Ruth Ayowole.
Adekonipekun explained that his wife, with service number 068986, was serving with the Anti-Robbery Unit of Osun Police Command.
“I chatted with my wife till around 8:10am on February 13 before they set out for the journey, but two hours later, when I tried to contact her, her number was not reachable.
“I later lodged a complaint with the officer in-charge of the Anti-Robbery unit, and the Commissioner of Police, who informed me that they had sent a follow-up team to verify the state of the missing officers.
“It was later we heard that one of the officers named Sodiq, had escaped the ambush and returned to Osogbo, but didn’t know what happened to the rest of the team.”
The husband of the police woman said since then, there had been no news about the missing police officers.
“I and others have sent petitions to the Police Service Commission, Zone XI in Osogbo and the State Police Command about the whereabouts of the officers, but there has been no response,” he said.
In the same vein, the family of an Assistant Superintendent of Police attached to the Osun State Command, Tolulope Abiodun Adebayo-Adeshile, has demanded the whereabouts of their son and four of his colleagues.
The ASP’s father, Adebayo-Adeshile, said his son, Adebayo Sheu Adeshile, who serves in the CID of the Osun State Police Command, said, “I became worried when his (ASP Adebayo-Adeshile’s) phone line became non-available to calls from around 10am (February 13, 2024) even till Thursday, February 15, 2024, and had to place calls to his co-officers and friends who insisted that I need to come down to Osogbo for information regarding him, as they have no information and most importantly that they are not even in position to give any.”
According to the father of the ASP, he reported to the Osun State Police Command on February 15, 2024, and met with the Deputy Commissioner in charge of the State CID.
He said he was yet to receive any official information, apart from “We are still looking for them.”
The Point’s further findings revealed that the Police Force is still paying the salaries of the missing officers to their various bank accounts.
Meanwhile, some of the affected family members have been visiting different spiritual and religious centres in a bid to unravel the whereabouts of their relations and facilitate their safe return.
Apparently aware of the unconfirmed report that the missing officers might have been killed during the ambush, spouses of the cops are still hopeful that their partners would soon be reunited with them.
Sadly, The Point reliably gathered that some clerics have been extorting the helpless family members with failed prophecies that their missing relations would return.
