Skip to main content

Ondo police arrest 150 suspected Boko Haram members



Men of the Ondo State Police Command have arrested 150 middle-aged men suspected to be members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect.

The suspects, who were in possession of arms and ammunition, were being conveyed in a truck with registration number Kano NSR 97 XZ before they were intercepted by the policemen at Lipakala Junction in Ondo town.

The truck was heading towards Ore, in Odigbo Local Government Area of the state .



The suspects were initially detained at the Fagun Police Division before they were transferred to the headquarters of the command in Akure, the state capital.

Some of the items found inside the vehicle of the suspects included locally-made guns, knives, cutlasses and several torch lights .

One of the suspects, who identified himself as Abdulahi Sheriff, claimed that they were not Boko Haram members but farmers coming from Benin-Kebbi to seek greener pasture in Ore town.

He added that their relocation from the North was due to the harsh and dry season in their area which had negatively affected their activities as farmers.

The police spokesperson in the state, Mr. Femi Joseph, who confirmed the arrest, told our correspondent that the suspects claimed they were not terrorists but farmers who were travelling from Kebbi State to work in Ondo State.

Joseph said, “We discovered in our findings that the men are not Boko Haram members. Some of them engage in trading while some of them were going to Ore to do menial jobs. There is nothing that indicated that they are members of Boko Haram.”

On the issue of arms found in their vehicle, the Police Public Relations Officer explained that some of the suspects who were hunters were the owners of the guns and other weapons.

The police spokesperson, however, said the suspects would not be released until the command completed investigation into the matter.

He said, “We have to be completely sure that they are not members of the Boko Haram sect before we can allow them to go.”


Copyright PUNCH.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

DEFECTIONS: Why Saraki, Dogara Others Must Heed Sen. Ibrahim's Call by Comrade Nwokoma Ndubuisi M.

The gale of defections in the National Assembly last week was followed by an advice from no one else than Sen. Abu Ibrahim that the Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki as well as the Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara and others in the fold of the All Progressives Congress APC that are still masquerading in the party should resign their membership of the party. This call which also implies that they resign their positions as leaders of the various arms of the National Assembly is yet to be complied with by those concerned as at the time of writing this piece Whatever their reasons for still staying put in the party may be, the fact of the matter is that their continued stay in the party has become a sore which must be extricated from the body.  As I watched through the proceedings of the defections on national television, I wept for the country for producing such leaders that lack morality despite all the party has given them politically which they ordin...

Rivers Governmnet, PDP Disagree Over $280 million Looan

The Rivers State Government and the Peoples Democratic Party in the state are currently at loggerheads over the request by the state Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, for a $280m loan for water and sanitation projects. While the state PDP said that the latest request for loan by the state government was unnecessary due to the resources accruing to the state through the federal allocation and internally generated revenue, the government said it was not true that the funds were to be used for 2015 elections. The state House of Assembly had on Monday endorsed Amaechi’s request for loan for water supply and sanitation projects. But the state PDP, in a statement, signed by the Special Adviser to its Chairman, Mr. Jerry Needam, said the request for loan was aimed at punishing the governor’s successor in 2015. The party called on members of the House of Assembly, the Federal Ministry of Finance, the African Development Bank and the World Bank not to honour the loan re...

2019: Northern youths kick as Northwest APC lawmakers endorse Buhari

The leadership of the Arewa Youth Forum on Monday said President Muhammadu Buhari does not deserve any endorsement for the 2019 presidency. Reacting to a purported endorsement by some serving All Progressives Congress’s lawmakers from the Northwest in Kaduna, the AYF’s National President, Alhaji Gambo Gujungu, said Buhari was not fit to return as president in 2019. The AYF argued that with the killing spree all over the country, especially in the North, Buhari should serve his mandatory four years term and quit the stage for another Northerner. Gujungu noted that one sour point about President Buhari’s 2019 ambition was his claim that the killings across the country were being carried out by “desperate politicians”, yet he had not arrested even a single suspect. The AYF president, therefore, said Nigerians should blame the president for the attacks on innocent citizens. The AYF boss who spoke to our correspondent on phone on Monday, said the President’s cl...