The new Commissioner of Police for Ogun State, Bashir Makama, has declared there would be no room for criminals to perpetrate their dastardly acts in the state.
Makama, upon assumption of office in the state, said he had told his Lagos counterpart, Zubairu Muazu, to be ready to take back all the hoodlums who had hitherto relocated to Ogun State from Lagos.
“I am new in Ogun, but, I am sure I am not new in the profession. I spent most of my time in Lagos. I have told the Lagos CP to be ready to accept all their criminals back,” Makama said.
But in what appeared to be a baptism of fire for the CP, some police officers from the Zonal Intervention Squad, Zone 2, Lagos, penultimate Sunday allegedly shot a young man identified as Akeem dead in a violence which broke out in Ifo, Ifo local government area of the state.
The police officers, our correspondent gathered, had trailed a young man suspected to be in possession of a gun to the grand finale of Akoogun Festival in Ifo.
It was further learnt that the police officers, upon arrest of the suspect, were prevented from taking him away. In the process of the altercation, the gun-wielding police officers reportedly shot dead one of the young men and disappeared into thin air.
The aggrieved young men were said to have regrouped and in their violent protest over the murder, seriously attacked one Inspector Sunday Ogundape.
The violence escalated as arsonists razed down the constituency office of the Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Olakunle Oluomo, where they also burnt his five buses parked in front of the office. They also burnt the office of a House of Representatives member, Ibrahim Isiaka.
While the dust was yet to settle on the Ifo mayhem, rival cultists engaged in a turf war in Sagamu, leading to 10 deaths, although Makama told newsmen he was aware of only one death.
Apparently in a move to reduce the tempo of violence, Makama’s men swooped on hoodlums in the state and paraded 93 suspects penultimate Tuesday for various alleged crimes, including abduction of a Chinese, Ye Shounong and a South African, Jacob Joannes Bothma.
The expatriates were reportedly kidnapped at Ilaro and Abeokuta respectively and made to pay ransoms to the tune of N23 million.
Makama, while parading the suspects at the State Headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta, said his men had “technically trailed and apprehended” the suspects following a report on the activities of the kidnapping syndicate in the state.
Speaking on cultism, he gave cultists willing to renounce their membership a month amnesty after which “there will be total clampdown on all known cultists who are using their membership to perpetrate heinous acts.”
Makama also asked those brandishing arms to lay them down before the period of grace expires. He warned hoodlums who had stockpiled their armoury for the purpose of elections to surrender them now that elections are over.
“I have made it clear that the state will not be conducive for criminals as well as their sponsors, and we are determined to take the battle to their door steps. They have only two options: it’s either they turn a new leaf or relocate from this state. Failure to choose any of the two options will lead them to meet their waterloo,” Makama said.
The CP has equally launched a special operation outfit codenamed ‘Operation Puff Adder’ in compliance with the directive of the Inspector-General of Police. He vowed that the command would use the operation to effect a total clampdown on hoodlums perpetrating crimes such as armed robbery, kidnapping and cultism in the state.
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