How Sad : 11 Child Armed Robbers Aged Between 12 – 14 Years, Arrested in Ibadan

 Oyo State Police Command is to rehabilitate 11 child robbers arrested in Ibadan, the state capital, on June 15, the Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Katsina, said on Thursday.

 Katsina, who disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan, added that the arrest of the kid robbers was part of initiatives by the command to ensure a crime-free environment in the state.

 Katsina stated that some of the kid robbers, aged between 12 and 14, conspired and invaded a house around the Challenge Area of Ibadan, where they stole the sum of N11,000.

“Based on information, the Anti-Robbery Squad of the command was sent out immediately and they were surprised to see kids of 12 and 14 years of age coming out to make confessional statements,” he said.

Katsina, who also expressed pity on the plight of the kids, explained that they voluntarily narrated to the police details about their activities.

He lamented that the involvement of the kids in robbery activities could be attributed to lack of parental care and poverty.

“Most of these children are from broken homes and I wish parents can learn from the plight of these kids and take proper care of their children.

“One thing that keeps disturbing me is the voluntary narration and sincerity of the kids. They have no shelter of any sort and to them, their future starts and ends on the bridge.

“Their only means of livelihood is to savage innocent members of the public, be involved in pick pocketing, robbery and related criminal activities,” he said.

Katsina noted that 90 per cent of the kids arrested were not residents or indigenes of Oyo State.

“Some of them are from Benin Republic in search of greener pastures in Nigeria, in a negative way,” he said.

The police boss disclosed that one of the 11 kid robbers, a 12-year-old boy, was apprehended in Ogbomoso in a robbery-related conduct.

“In the course of the arrest, he led us to six other members of his group, where four of them were minors and the two others adults.

“The boy is from Kwara State, as we got to know from his confession. He confessed that his father was living happily with his mother until he married a second wife.

“As a result of that, there was a problem and the mother moved out with the kid robber and relocated to Ogbomoso,” he said.

Katsina, however, added that the command was currently taking care of the 11 arrested minors.

He also said that Governor Abiola Ajimobi had promised to assist in the rehabilitation and provision of adequate care for the kids.

“When I spoke with him, he said that there were rehabilitation centres in Ibadan, where the kids would be provided with basic care amenities. The governor also said that the state government would assist to provide job opportunities for unemployed youths in the state at the newly-inaugurated Waste-to-Energy projects.”

The Oyo police boss, however, called on parents and the governments of the neighbouring countries to monitor the activities of their children and wards, while admonishing Nigerians and philanthropists to assist them.

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Breaking News: Governor sacks all commissioners and advisers

The Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, has sacked all his commissioners, assistants, and advisers. This was announced a few minutes ago, no reason for their dismissal has been given. 

 More reports to follow...

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Fake soldier, policeman arrested in Ibadan

Men of the Oyo State police command have arrested two people over alleged impersonation.

The suspect, Enock Victor (31), was paraded as fake soldier while Samuel Olatunji (41) claimed to be a policeman.

The suspects were, on Tuesday, paraded as soldier and police officer impersonators by the Oyo State police command at its headquarters at Eleyele, Ibadan, the state capital.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Olabisi Okuwobi, who spoke on behalf of the Commissioner of Police, Tambari Yabo Muhammed, disclosed that the two suspects were caught in Ogbere, outskirts of the city in Ona-Ara Local Government Area of the state and Kajorepo area on Iwo-Road/Ojoo end of Lagos/Ibadan/Ilorin expressway.

The supposed soldier, she said, had engaged in helping people to forcefully collect money from debtors. Where such debtors failed, he picked any valuable from such debtor, claiming to have  power to deal with the debtor.

Unknown to such people that Enock was not a soldier; he was seen as a soldier because of the boots he wears about.

In the case of the fake police officer, the police boss said he was found terrorising residents of Idi-Aro, the artisans and herbalists, asking them to settle him so as not to arrest them for undisclosed offences.

Claiming that he had been in the business for the past two years, Olatunji lost out in the game when one of his victims, a herbalist, refused to play the ball on the account that the demand for settlement was getting too frequent.

How we robbed travellers on highway  —Robbery suspectAdewale Ajayi, Osogbo

AN armed robbery suspect arrested by  the Osun State police command during a robbery operation on the Ibadan/Akure Expressway, Adedeji Ojo, on Wednessday,  revealed  to the police tactics adopted by robbers  who   robbed travellers on the highway.

Explaining details   of how they operated to   journalists at  the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Osogbo,  Ojo disclosed  that his gang did  cause minor accident with trailers on the highway with the intention  to obstruct flow of traffic.

According to him, “We call it diversionary tactic. We will target a trailer and drive recklessly  beside the trailer and make sure the trailer scratched our car. Then, we will park our car on the road in front of the trailer and the driver of the trailer will come down to see the level of damage. Then, we will grab him while the trailer will remain on the road.

“Other drivers will alight from their vehicles   to see what   was happening  and how to resolve  the matter so  that the trailer can be moved and  allow free flow of traffic. When we observe   that many  vehicles have parked and some people have come down, then we will start the robbery operation and rob them very quickly.”

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Fire razes building, kills three in Ibadan

A 60-year-old woman, Mrs Esther Olajide, and two of her grandchildren, were on Tuesday burnt to death at her residence in Molete area of Ibadan.

Eye witnesses told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the deceased and her grandchildren, aged six and nine, could not be rescued due to the thick smoke emanating from the inferno that gutted the one-story building.

The fire, according to the eye witnesses, started around 11 p.m on Monday.

A friend of the late woman, Mrs Olayinka Oyebode, blamed the incidence on power surge.

She claimed that power supply in the area before the incident had been erratic, arguing that this was responsible for the inferno.

“The mummy that I know dislikes anything that has to do with electrical gadgets and she will instruct the children not to tamper with electrical appliances.

“ What I know is that the cause of the fire is due to PHCN spark,

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Ajimobi, Akala trade words over sack of 2,262 workers, traders

Abiola Ajimobi, Incumbent Governor of  Oyo State

GOVERNOR Abiola Ajimbo of Oyo State and his immediate predecessor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, were at each other’s throat yesterday over alleged sack of 2,262 workers and traders from their jobs and filth in Ibadan metropolis.

Akala, through his spokesperson, Prince Dotun Oyelade, said: “Ajimobi’s sporadic visits to various sites amount to nothing in the face of ever-mounting heaps of refuse in Ibadan city. Instead of clearing refuse dumps, Ajimobi is clearing hapless traders from their stalls where they get their livelihood in the name of ‘environmental restoration’ which is a fanthom exercise to bring Ibadan to decrepit state.”

On creation of 20,000 jobs

On the creation of 20,000 jobs within the first 100 days in office, Akala said with about five weeks to the expiration of the promise, Ajimobi sacked 262 traffic officers and also sacked over 2000 traders from their stalls at Molete, Secretariat and Oyo/Ibadan road.

He said the governor should take advantage of the new environmental trucks procured by the Akala Government, reassure the 1200 sweepers employed over a year ago, and maintain the environmental standard that he inherited even if he could not improve on it.

Park turned into bush

Akala maintained that even the beautiful park in front of the Government House where the Governor lives has turned into a bush which is probably an excuse for the filth all over the city, the type not seen in the last 4 years.

Need to visit sites

But, Ajimobi, through his Senior Special Asistant, Dr. Festus Adedayo said what the former governor called “sporadic visits” was necessary because infrastructure had been rampaged by the Alao-Akala government, so much that only a physical examination of the rot could provide incentives to tackling them headlong.

Alao Akala, Ex Governor of Oyo.

According to him, one of the dividends of Governor Ajimobi’s “sporadic visits” was the discovery, at the Solid Waste Management Yard, Agodi-Gate area of the state capital, of the abandonment, for about three years now, of 15 trucks purchased by the Alao-Akala government at a suspicious cost of N595 million.

Park turned into bush

Akala maintained that even the beautiful park in front of the Government House where the Governor lives has turned into a bush which is probably an excuse for the filth all over the city, the type not seen in the last 4 years.

He explained that “not only were the trucks abandoned for three years, none of them ever worked. They were given as contract to a top Lagos PDP Senator in what would rank as the extreme cronyism of the Alao-Akala years. None of the trucks ever worked for a day and they had been lying fallow there for three years”.

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Ajimobi declares assets- has N292.4m in banks, owns houses in US, UK

Senator Abiola Ajimobi

Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi on Sunday made public the assets declaration form which he deposed to shortly before his inauguration as governor on May 29.

Making the content of the form public on behalf of his boss, the governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications, Dr. Festus Adedayo, said the step was in line with Ajimobi’s promise to commence a government that lays store by transparency and accountability in the administration of the state.

Adedayo said the governor deposed to the Assets Declaration Form for Public Officers at the Registry of the State High Court, Ibadan, before Justice Ladiran Akintola, on May 27, 2011, two days before assuming office.

The assets declared, according to him, include cash in local banks, buildings, vehicles, business enterprises and household items.

According to the form filled by the governor, the total amount of cash he has in banks in the country is N292, 432, 107.00 while he has none in any foreign account.

The governor also declared that he had a mansion in Ibadan worth N250m, a building in the same city worth N150m, another one with the value of N300m in Lagos, as well as a detached house worth N300m in Abuja.

He added that he had a flat purchased through mortgage financing worth £450,000 in the United Kingdom, another worth £1.95m, purchased through mortgage in the UK and another house worth $1.5m in the United States of America.

Ajimobi also declared that he owned 131 acres of farm land in a village at the Ido Local Government area of Ibadan worth N150m, two Lagos-based companies, Viz Grandex Nigeria Limited, worth N200m and Network Petroleum Nigeria Limited, worth N260m.

The governor put the worth of all his vehicles at N94.25m and household furniture, which include generating sets and electronics at N25m.

The governor also declared that his wife, Mrs. Florence Ajimobi, possesses a house in Ibadan that is worth N15m and another in Lagos that is worth N250m.

Adedayo said the new government of Oyo State laid great store by probity and accountability, and was of the belief that the patrimony of the people must be guarded jealously as the governor would give account of all that was entrusted in his care, not only to the people of the state who voted for him in the April elections, but to God “the ultimate judge” who would request for an account whenever the governor finishes his assignment on earth.

Ajimobi is the first governor of the state to publicly declare his assets.

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