Fake kidnapping: Ambode deposes suspended Baale of Shangisha

Lagos State governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, on Sunday announced deposition of the suspended Baale of Shangisha in Magodo, Chief Yusuf Ogundare, for faking his abduction which allegedly took place on July 5 along Center for Management Development (CMD) Road in Ikosi-Isheri Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of the state.

Ogundare, had, last Friday, been suspended by Governor Ambode moments after he was paraded alongside his brother, Mohammed Adams by the Lagos State Police Command for conspiring to fake the alleged kidnap.

The governor, in a release signed by the State’s Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Muslim Folami, ordered Ogundare to henceforth desist from parading himself as the Baale of Shangisha or discharge any duties attached to chieftaincy matters in the state.

“This is to inform the general public that His Excellency, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, has authorized the deposition and prosecution by police of Chief Yusuf Mutiu Ogundare, Baale of Shangisha with immediate effect.

“This is in accordance with Section 38, subsection 1 of the Obas and Chiefs Laws of Lagos State,” Folami said in the statement.

“Furthermore, he (Ogundare) is to stop parading himself, purports to exercise or discharge any of the duties attached to Chieftaincy Matters with immediate effect,” the commissioner added.

According to him, the section had stated inter alia, “The governor may suspend or depose any oba or chief whether appointed before or after commencement of this law, if he is satisfied that such suspension or deposition is required according to Customary Law or is necessary in the interest of peace or good government.”

Folami said the deposition followed the formal confession of the Baale to security services that he staged his own kidnap to blackmail the state government.

It would be recalled that the State’s Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, while parading the suspects at the Lagos House in Ikeja last Thursday, had narrated how they conspired to perfect the fake kidnap, all in a bid to implicate the Oba of Magodo, as well as rubbish the state government and security agencies.

According to Owoseni, six days after the incidence, some men of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) on patrol in Alausa area at about 10pmapprehended Ogundare after he was dropped in a suspicious manner by a car which sped off immediately.