26th November, 2010
Residents of Agunfoye Idiorogbo village in Ikorodu Local Government Area of Lagos State, South West Nigeria, are living in fear beacuse of a gang suspected to be members of the O’odua People’s Congress, OPC, who have been terrorising them for quite some time.
P.M.NEWS gathered that the gang have been giving the villagers sleepless nights. They allegedly loot, maim and kidnap innocent residents on a daily basis.
The gang was alleged to have been led by the duo of Taiwo Oyedele and Wale Ogunlana who are now on the run, following the kidnap of a block maker in the area, Lateef Omosanya, on Monday, 22 November, this year.
The victim was whisked away and beaten to a pulp and later released the following day after he was dispossessed of about N350,000 and a gold wrist watch.
Narrating his ordeal to P.M.NEWS yesterday, Omosanya said he was at his block industry at Aguntoye Village when he saw Oyedele and Ogunlana leading two other known OPC members with cutlasses to where he was at around 1 p.m. on the day he was kidnapped.
“I heard Ogunlana saying that is the man, take him away. I was taken away in Wale’s car despite protests by some of the villagers. But nobody could stop them because of whom they are. Inside the car, they removed my top and used it to blind-fold me .â€
He said he was taken to Ita-Oluwo junction, OPC Lion Zone where he allegedly beaten by Dele Akorede a.k.a. Confidence and one Tunde.
Omosanya also alleged that they took him to a shrine where he was asked to swear an oat not to disclose what happened to him to any body. “They collected my sales proceeds for the day, about N350,000 and my gold wrist-watch. I was locked up in their cell only to be released the following day around 4:40 p.m,” he said.
P.M.NEWS learnt that since the case was reported to the police, Ogunlana, Oyedele, Akorede anmd Tunde have been on the run.
However, Ogunla’s wife, Aina, was arrested by the police on Thursday, when she was trying to pack some of their belongings to an unknown destination. She was detained at the Igbogbo Police Station.
When P.M.NEWS contacted Ogunlala and Oyedele on phone over the matter, they told our reporter’ to go to hell’; saying he should keep off.
The head of Adeyoruwa family of Aguntoye Idiorogbo village, Chief Ganiyu Onabanjo, said the suspects have been terrorising the villagers for some time and that they still have unresolved criminal cases with the Panti Police State Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba, Lagos and Zone II.
Chief Onabanjo called on the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, to come to their aid in order to bring the suspects to book.
The Acting Divisional Police Officer, Igbogbo Ikorodu, Mr. Akinsanya, was said to be away on official duty when our reporters visited his office. However, a police source confirmed the incident and said investigation is still ongoing.