WHEN the new Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikemefuna Okoye, assumed duty two weeks ago, he promised to tackle the issue of insecurity in the state with the co-operation of his officers and men and also the good people of the state.
This promise came to reality last Tuesday, when officers of the Command stormed Ewualase Village, in Ogijo area of the state, located in Sagamu Local Government Area of the state to ascertain information at its disposal that some unscrupulous elements were perpetrating heinous acts in the area.
Ogijo is a town sharing boundaries with Ikorodu and Sagamu, though it is under Sagamu Local Government. It is a big town which is popular and full of activities. However, Ewualase Village is an off-way settlement which is about three or four minutes drive off the highway.
The Police, acting on this tip-off from residents of the area swung into action to investigate the authenticity of the information that some people were carrying out nefarious activities in the village. Lo and behold; a shrine was discovered behind NNPC Mosimi depot.
However, two people suspected to be ritualists were arrested at the scene, when the Commissioner of Police and his officers got to the scene for an on –the –spot assessment of the place.
The villagers, it was learnt, informed the Police about the location and the activities of the people in the village at the Divisional Police Headquarters in Ogijo and the matter was reported at the Command’s headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta.
According to Mr Okoye, “The Ogijo divisional headquarters, through very high level intelligence gathering, heard about the operations of these people (suspects) at the shrine.
“I gave them directives and they swung into some intelligence action that eventually led to arrest of two people at the shrine.
“I gave them directives and they swung into some intelligence action that eventually led to arrest of two people at the shrine.
“For now, all we can say is that they are using this place for either rituals or to defraud people or both.
“I can assure you that we are going to do a very thorough investigation on their activities.”
The police boss said that the two suspects arrested would be charged to court as soon as investigation on the matter is concluded.
While expressing gratitude to the people of the area for their cooperation that led to the apprehension of the suspect, he charged others to also show concern about happenings in their different areas.
“Police are not magicians and we can only work on information available to us, so any one with useful information on how the state can be safer should please come forward with such.
He, thereafter, said that the identity of anyone who volunteered information to the Police would be highly protected and guided.
One of the suspects arrested was the person who sold the land to the other suspect. Sunday Tribune gathered that the second suspect claimed to have started ‘business’ in the village about seven months and was only using the place to defraud people who might be seeking spiritual solutions to problems such as barrenness, poverty, etc. He was reported to have denied being involved in ritual killing.
It will be recalled that the daughter (names withheld) of a foremost journalist who is now dead was abducted by suspected ritualists in January 2009 at Oluyole Estate, Ibadan, Oyo State while she was going to school. Her uniform was removed and she was given a dirty Jalabiya to put while she was taken to the same Ogijo by her abductors.
The teenager was however saved from untimely death when the abductors reportedly spoke to one another that her spirit was not agreeale to being offered for ritual. She was eventually released on the third day, but not before the N28,000 school fees she had with her was collected from her, out of which she was given about N600 to use as transport fare back home.
According to the young girl who is now an undergraduate in one of the nation’s universities, a woman who was among the ritualists was said to have been instructed to lead her out of the bush so that she could find her way back to town where it would be easy for her to see life and activities and communicate with her people back home.