Operatives of the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) have arrested a serving Traffic Warden Officer, Sergeant Haruna Yusuf for stealing the service pistol of the division’s station officer, Inspector Ehigimetor Ileso.
Haruna is attached to Omu-Aran Police Divisional Headquarters of the Kwara State Police Command.
Haruna, 38, subsequently sold the said pistol to members of a secret cult group who used it to carry out several robbery activities both in Kwara and Osun States.
As a result of the missing pistol which occurred in January 2019, Ehigimetor was subjected to police orderly room trial and was later dismissed from service due to his inability to account for the ammunition which was an English Berretta Pistol.
Ehigimetor eventually died as a result of his dismissal from the force based on the missing pistol.
Haruna and other suspects have been arrested by the DCP Tunji Disu-led IRT and are currently helping with the ongoing investigation.
According to police sources, IRT had swung into action upon credible intelligence that a notorious criminal who operates in Kwara and Osun States, one Lekan Tajudeen was in possession of firearms being used by some criminal elements to torment residents of the affected states.
Tajudeen, aka Rector, resident of Ilorin in Kwara State is said to be the leader of Aye Confraternity secret cult group in one of the tertiary institutions in Kwara State.
Having gotten wind of the fact that the police operatives were on his trail, Tajudeen ran to Ede in Osun State to hibernate.
The police, not relenting on their oars, extended investigation to Ede town, and the suspect was subsequently apprehended with one English Berretta Pistol with two rounds of live ammunition.
Upon interrogation, the suspect claimed to have bought the pistol from one Eze Chukwudi through one Olarinre Abiodun aka Yeukeu at the rate of N180,000 which he has been using for his criminal acts.
His confession eventually led to the arrest of Chukwudi who also confessed that he bought another locally made pistol with five live ammunition at the rate of N60,000 and also the armorer of the Aye Confraternity secret cult group in Omu-Aran, Kwara State.
He also said he kept the arms with one Elijah Alebo ‘m’ and Israel Alebo of Igandu Street, Omu-Aran in Kwara State.
Upon further questioning, Chukwudi confessed that he bought the said English Berretta Pistol and locally made revolver pistol at the rate of N60,000 each from one Haruna Yusuf a serving Traffic Warden Officer attached to Omu-Aran Police Divisional Headquarters, Kwara State Command.
Haruna confessed that he stole the English Berreta Pistol from one late Inspector Ehigimetor (his former station officer) of the aforementioned Police Divisional Headquarters sometime in January 2019 and that the late inspector died as a result of his dismissal from the force based on the missing pistol.
It was gathered that the said Traffic Warden would be tried administratively before prosecution, while all the suspects are to be charged to court accordingly after the completion of the investigation.
Specifically, items recovered from the suspects are one Police English Berretta pistol, one locally-made revolver pistol, two locally fabricated pistols, one locally/moderately cut to size gun, eleven live cartridges, five dangerous knives, three different battle axes, and one cutlass.
