A trailer driver, Ganiyu Akeem, last week narrated how hijackers cunningly forced him to a stop, after which they beat and stabbed him, before they drove away with his trailer containing livestock feeds.
Akeem spoke on his experience at the Oyo State Police Command headquarters at Eleyele, Ibadan, when two suspected hijackers and others with various offences were paraded by the state Commissioner of Police, Adebowale Williams.
The suspected hijackers were identified as Adegboyega Afeez, aged 25, and Samuel Olaoluwa (20). Exhibit recovered was a Mack trailer carrying container loaded with livestock feeds.
The police commissioner had told journalists that on Thursday, June 30, at about 2am, the command’s Monitoring Unit in Ibadan, led by CSP Olusola Aremu, was informed of the hijacking of a Mack trailer conveying a container loaded with livestock feeds along Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
CP Williams said that the hijackers were members of a criminal gang who had been terrorising trailer drivers along the expressway and other parts of the state, adding that they attacked the trailer driver on the fateful day and diverted the vehicle to an unknown location.
He said that the report prompted a team of operatives attached to the unit to begin a manhunt and intelligence gathering. The efforts yielded fruits as two of the suspected armed robbers were arrested in Oyo Town.
“The diverted Mack trailer with the container was later recovered at a hidden location in Oyo town. Investigation is ongoing and further updates will be communicated in due course,” the police boss stated.
Narrating what he went through, the driver, who had several visible wound on his head and face, said: “I loaded livestock feeds at Wharf in Lagos State late on Wednesday. In the early hours of Thursday, after 12 midnight, I had passed Sapaade along Lagos-Ibadan expressway and was almost at Fidiwo community when a truck hit me by the side. This made me to hit a culvert and I had to struggle not to fall on my side. The truck driver parked and I did too.
“I saw one of them, whom I recognised and later found to be known as Afeez, coming down and telling me that it was a Motor Boy who drove and made a mistake. I used my phone torch to check for damages but it was only the mirror which broke. He called the boy and he came down with two others, making four of them. The boy started shouting ‘where is the driver?’ The next thing was that he started raining blows on me.
“Then they all descended on me stabbing me with different weapons. They also attacked my motor boy but he was able to escape into the bush. One of my attackers started saying ‘shoot him. Let us kill him!’ Another said ‘let us run a tyre over him!.
“When they saw that I was so weak after the pummelling, they kickstarted the trailer I drove and took it away with the one used to hit me. When I became calm, I saw my phone and called my boss. I also saw my motor boy emerging from the bush where he had gone to hide.
“I was at the at spot till daybreak before I saw one of our drivers who picked me. He also gave me clothes to wear because the attackers had torn my clothes. We informed the police in Ogun State, and they told my boss and others to give me medical treatment, after which I was detained as the first suspect.”
Nigerian Tribune learnt after the vehicle was recovered and was being driven to Ibadan by the team of policemen from Monitoring Unit, those in the search for the vehicle met the operatives along the road, and became elated at its recovery.
In an interview, one of the suspects, Afeez, claimed that he was invited to Oyo from Ibadan by a man he knew, known as Saheed, who asked him to help him transload goods from a broken-down vehicle to another, unknown to him that it was hijacked. But this claim was punctured by the driver who said he saw him clearly when he was attacked at midnight, stating that he was even the first to approach him after his vehicle was hit.
Afeez spoke thus: “I follow truck drivers as assistant, generally referred to as Motor Boy. I also offload goods. On Thursday penultimate week, one Saheed who also owns a truck called me and said I should come and help him offload some goods, as his vehicle which loaded goods in Ibadan had developed a mechanical fault. He said that the goods needed to be trans-loaded into another one of his trucks which was already on its way.
“That was how Samuel and I left Ibadan for Oyo. He told us to come to Medinah area, saying that we would meet some drivers by the truck. We got there at about 12noon and met the drivers. They took us to where Saheed was, telling us to be patient as the vehicle being expected had yet to arrive. They took us to a hotel nearby.
“Later, Saheed told us he was going home and would be back. Also, the drivers we met said they were going to the broken-down vehicle. When we didn’t see them after an hour, I called Saheed and told him to let us go back to Ibadan if there was nothing to do but he said we should be patient.
“Thereafter, rain started falling and he said that water must not drench the goods we were to offload, but he didn’t tell us the type of goods. He spoke with someone in the hotel that we should be allowed to sleep so that we could transload the following morning.
“Not long after, we just saw police operatives who came to arrest us. I called Saheed the following morning but he told me he was in Lagos.”
The second suspect, Olaoluwa, however, denied leaving Ibadan with Afeez, saying that he came on his own to meet him in Oyo.
He said: “I’m a driver. Afeez called me and said we should go to Oyo town together to transload goods from a vehicle to another. Since I was in Oyo at that time, I took a bike and went to meet him. I met two other people with him. He explained everything to me. About 30 minutes later, two men came on different motorcycles. I later learnt that one of them was Saheed. They spoke with the two people who were said to be drivers. They took us to a hotel. Not long after, Saheed said that he wanted to go and have his bath at home. They even drank beer without paying before leaving. The manager of the hotel called Amotekun and told them he didn’t know who we were. We were still on that when police came.”
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