The Ondo State Security Network, codenamed Amotekun, has arrested four suspects for various crimes, including kidnapping, armed robbery, and stealing, just as the command suspended three of its officers for alleged gross misconduct.
The suspects, according to the Commander of the security outfit, Akogun Adetunji Adeleye, included Adebayo Ogungbemi, Nasiru Suleiman, Saliu Nureni, and Ahmed Oladimeji.
Apart from the arrest, the Command also declared three of his staff wanted for undermining the security situation in the Southwest geo-political zone. The suspended officers, according to Adeleye, included Abu Taiwo, Akinsipe Victor, and Ekujumi Julius.
Adeleye said the officers were accused of gross misconduct and conducting themselves in a manner that could undermine the integrity of the command.
One of the suspects, Ogungbemi, confessed that he was an informant to kidnappers in the Ademekun power line at Agodada camp in Akure North area of the state.
The 29-year-old suspect said he was hired by a herdsman to plant Indian hemp in the state. However, he said he was trained on the use of AK-47 rifles by the bandits operating in the state forests.
He said he was given a phone through which he communicated the movement of farmers and security personnel to the bandits. Ogungbemi said the head of the bandits, Alhaji Dogo, used to pay each of the new recruits #1500.000 monthly allowances.
Parading the suspect among others, Akogun Adeleye said suspected bandits brought Ogungbemi and three others into Ademekun farmland and told them that they had to be trained on the use of AK-47.
Adeleye said they went through the training and had been working for them until the joint patrol team of the Civil Defence and Amotekun, with the assistance of the Regent and people of Ademekun village, arrested him.
Speaking of other suspects, Adeleye said, “We have Nasiru Suleiman, who for over three months has been dismantling a government caterpillar and moving equipment parked in a government yard along Akure-Ondo road.
“They actually came there with a truck, and we can show you where we put some of the very big engines we recovered from them. He said they usually dismantle these caterpillar parts, and they have completely ravaged many caterpillars to the carcass, and I think, according to him, they are on the third one when Amotekun officers arrested them.
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“We have a Saliu Nureni, 57, who was arrested around NEPA market for robbery and setting ablaze in a place the property of the victim and threatened to kill the victim. We equally have one Ahmed Oladimeji, arrested with the generator and alternator he stole around Igoba in Akure.
Adeleye, who also spoke on the three of his men who were recently suspended, said, “Every organisation has its own rules; the Ondo State Security Network Agency is no exception.
“The law setting up the Corps specifically says the Corps should give out identity cards and warrant cards for operatives who are full staff of the government as an agency.
“You will observe that at the time when there are pressing need for the Corps to come together and continue to work assiduously to ensure that the security of the state is not compromised is when our intelligence showed that the three Abu Taiwo, Akinsipe Victor, Akinjumi Julius have been sponsored not only to undermine and disparage the management of the Corps but totally to distract the attention of the Corps from its core mandate of the provision of security to lives and property.
“As we stand today, the three of them have been reprimanded. They have also been declared wanted, and we are following due diligence in handling such in a security environment where oaths of allegiance and secrecy to the state cannot be thrown away. We refused to be dragged into the controversies surrounding each and every one of them.
“But the fact remains that they are acting in isolation, and the Ondo State Security Network Agency, Amotekun Corp, remains solid, as you can see the entire management staff in ensuring that we are not distracted. They are acting in isolation.
“The three of them had been suspended from the Corps, and we are looking for them to come and answer as a way of giving them free access to criminal justice. If they are innocent, everybody will see.
“But the Corps as an entity will not be dragged into social media controversy with such people who are acting in isolation. Especially now that we are sure and we have proof to show that they are being sponsored.”
