Lagos police arraign 30 suspects over jungle justice

THIRTY suspects, who were allegedly involved in the jungle justice carried out on suspected ritual killers in Lagos State, have been arrested by the Lagos State Police Command.

The state police commissioner, Fatai Owoseni, who paraded the suspects before newsmen on Monday, decried the spate of jungle justice and cautioned residents to desist from the act.

The police boss also said that six policemen from the state police command were arrested for robbery, attempted murder and defilement insisting that the police would not shield the errant policemen.

Two of the policemen were said to have defiled a young girl; two others were arrested for attempted murder, while the last two were arrested for robbery.

The Lagos police boss, while reviewing the operations of the police in the last one month, said that 24 armed robbery suspects were arrested by men of the state police command during different encounters with men of the underworld.

He also added that 19 suspected cultists, six of whom had confessed to be members of the Eiye Confraternity, were arrested, with 88 different arms recovered from them.

Owoseni also told newsmen that two suspected kidnappers were arrested as part of the efforts of the police in the state to completely checkmate the activities of kidnappers in Lagos State.

Speaking on the suspects arrested for the lynching of suspected ritual killers at Obadeyi, Ile Zik and Mosalasi areas of the state, the police commissioner warned that the police would not take the issue of jungle justice lightly with the perpetrators.

Remarking on the arrested police officers, Owoseni said that two of them went wild around Ajao Estate in the state, shooting indiscriminately, before they were arrested.

He also said that two other policemen arrested for robbery were in the habit of arresting innocent young boys and tagging them internet fraudsters.

The CP also said that investigations by the police revealed that the two policemen would search the young men’s phones and other items before taking the mobile phones and money.

Meanwhile, for allegedly hurling stones at a Divisional Police Officer and his men at a kidnappers’ hole, 33 men including two teenagers, were, on Monday, brought before an Ebute Meta Chief Magistrates’ Court.

The accused were arraigned before Chief Magistrate Oluyemisi Adelaja on a four-count charge bordering on conspiracy, unlawful assembly and causing a breach of peace.

They all pleaded not guilty of the charges.

But the police prosecutor, Inspector Chinalu Uwadione, insisted that the accused committed the offences on August 8 at 9.00 a.m., at Obadoja Bus Stop along Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.

He said the accused had conspired to cause a breach of peace and held an unlawful assembly when a team of policemen arrived at the scene of a crime, a kidnappers’ hideout which was discovered in Ijaiye axis of the expressway.

“The accused, while shouting, pelted the policemen and the DPO of Ijaiye-Ojokoro Divisional Police Headquarters.”

The offences contravened Sections 44, 168(1), (d) and 330 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

Chief Magistrate Adelaja admitted the accused to a bail of N100,000 each with one responsible surety each in like sum, who must show evidence of tax payment to the state government.

The case has been adjourned till September 4 for trial.