Oyo State Police command has arrested a man, Moshood Oladokun (32), popularly known as Ekugbemi, who is the leader of the dreaded cult group, ‘One Million Boys’.
The group members were allegedly responsible for the spate of violence in many parts of the Ibadan metropolis in recent times.
Speaking while parading the cult leader and other suspects on Friday in Ibadan, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Sam Adegbuyi informed journalists that intensive investigation during the last yuletide led to the arrest of the suspects.
Adegbuyi said that the efforts of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad Police Command led to the arrest of the cult kingpin.
He said the notorious kingpin of the ‘One Million Boys’ cult group and his cohorts, who had been very elusive, were fished out from their criminal hideout at Ajah area of Lagos in a shootout that followed a well-coordinated operation carried out by the security operatives.
Moshood Oladokun was one of the 45 suspected criminals nabbed for various atrocities.
Three other suspects who were incriminated in the gruesome murder of a former member of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon. Gideon Aremu on April 1, 2016 were also paraded.
The suspects from whom three live cartridges were recovered include Yusuf Jimoh (25), Akeem Tiamiyu (24) and Babarinde Ikeji (29, the gang’s ritualist/spiritualist.
Those arrested alongside Moshood Oladokun, the gang leader of the “One Million Boys” are Mutiu Lawal a.k.a. Eleyele (22); Habib Oladiti a.k.a. Atama (26); and Akinkunmi Abioye a.k.a. Ajanaku (35) while others escaped with bullet wounds.
During interrogation, the suspects confesed to the crime and series of other criminal activities carried out in various parts of Ibadan and its environs.
DAILY POST gathered that the ‘One Million Boys’ had clashed with another rival cult group known as ’Abe Igi Boys’ who are also members of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), in December last year during which the hoodlums caused serious breakdown of law and order in places like Ode-Ige, Odinjo junction, Iba Oluyole and Idi-Aro, among other areas.
During the fracas, shops were looted, several houses were burnt and two persons – Oyerinde Taye and Balikis Suleiman – were gruesomely murdered, just as other victims sustained various degrees of injuries, including a victim whose wrist was chopped off.
Two other suspected ritualists who were arrested with human head and paraded to newsmen were Saheed Adeyemi (33) and Michael Edemba (60).
CP Adegbuyi told journalists that the duo were arrested with a human head at about 6.00 p.m. on February 1, 2017 by operatives of the Omi Adio Police Division.
The arrest of the suspects was made possible following a tip off by members of the public, the police boss said.
Adegbuyi said, “Saheed Adeyemi, the first suspect, walked into the ambush laid by the police while trying to remove the exhibit wrapped in a black polythene bag and hidden beside a shop at Abidogun Junction, Omi Adio. His arrest led to the arrest of the second suspect while preparing to escape from the town when he knew the bubble had burst.
“During interrogation, both suspects confessed to the crime. The first suspect who is an herbalist residing at Awosonso village, Apata, disclosed that he bought the human head at the rate of fifteen thousand naira from a yet-to-be-identified woman, now at large, for the purpose of making money rituals, for the second suspect who was passing through hard times as a result of financial difficulty.
“The second suspect, a resident of Awidere area, Igisogba, Omi-Adio, Ibadan, corroborated the first suspect. The exhibit when recovered was oozing with stench, indicating that it was a fresh head of an unidentified person.”
