*Mob sets another ablaze
IBADAN— EXPECTATIONS of hundreds of
people whose relatives are still missing
were dashed, yesterday, in Ibadan when
the demolition of the kidnappers' den at
Soka in Ibadan, where hundreds of people
have been killed by suspected ritualists,
was stopped midway by men of the Oyo
State Police Command.
The people who came from different
parts of the country claimed that some
victims were still trapped in a dungeon
which is yet to be located.
This came as 42 SIM cards of various
networks were found on a man that
pretended to be a madman.
The arrest of the man followed the jungle
justice meted out on him by angry youths
after the discovery of the den last
Saturday. The youths mobbed the man
and another one in separate parts of the
city.
Vanguard gathered that the incidents took
place at Oke-Ado area of Ibadan, where a
man feigning madness was caught and set
ablaze.
Demolition of the kidnappers' den at Soka
forest, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, as
ordered by Oyo State government, began
yesterday. PHOTOS: Dare Fasube.
Eyewitnesses said the man disguised as a
madman while a pistol, foreign currencies
and three ATM cards were found on him.
Police took his burnt remains away.
The other suspected kidnapper was
attacked at Queens Cinema area, but the
police rescued him.
Confirming the two incidents, the Police
Public Relations Officer, SP Olabisi
Ilobanafor, said three identity cards of
different names and N11,600 were found
on the man rescued at Queens Cinema.
Forty two SIM cards of various networks
were also found on him.
The order
On the demolition of the kidnappers' den,
the main building used by the kidnappers
as torture chamber, was about being
pulled down when policemen said "an
order from above" had put the demolition
on hold.
Immediately, scores of policemen who
had been deployed to the place left in
droves leaving a few of them behind.
While people were waiting for the next
line of action, some members of Oodua
Peoples Congress, OPC, stormed the den
with red piece of cloth tied round their
heads.
After making incantations, they claimed
some people were still somewhere at the
den.
Later, another message came that
everybody should leave the area for
security men to do their job.
A suspect arrested.
A suspect arrested.
Governor Ajimobi, through the Special
Adviser on Media, Dr. Festus Adedayo
said that the demolition was stopped to
allow the team of forensic experts from
the police headquarters in Abuja carry out
their investigations.
The governor also directed environmental
health officers to fumigate the forest and
the entire area to prevent outbreak of
epidemics.
Why demolition was stopped
No sooner had the demolition of the
buildings started than the state
Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed
Ndabawa, called the Chairman of Oluyole
Local Government, Prince Ayoade Abass
Aleshinloye, informing him of the need to
stop the exercise to allow the team of
forensic experts from the police
headquarters in Abuja carry out their
investigations.
Abass Aleshinloye was at the site with his
Ibadan South West Local Government
counterpart, Mr. Taoheed Adeleke and
the General Manager of Ibadan Local
Governments Property Development
Company, Mr. Lekan Babalola, to
supervise the exercise.
The police boss said if the exercise
continues, concrete evidence that would
help the police in their investigations
would be destroyed.
The demolition and clearing of the bush
will, however, resume tomorrow as the
forensic experts are expected to have
completed by then.
Abass Aleshinloye and Adeleke said
efforts were being made to ensure that
the speculation in some quarters of a
possible dungeon in the forest was
properly investigated and the site
cordoned off.
Accord Party, APC govt trade blames
Meanwhile, the Accord Party, Oyo State
Chapter, has called on the National
Human Rights Commission and civil
societies to step into the Soka house of
death saga to get an unbiased report.
The party alleged that the state
government should be held responsible
for the atrocities committed in the den.
The party, represented by Chief Ayodele
Adigun, former Secretary to the State
Government, said the land belonged to
the Oyo State Government, having
revoked the site from its earlier
occupiers.
Responding to the allegation, the All
Progressive Congress Publicity Secretary,
Dauda Kolawole, said: "The people of Oyo
State are in a state of grief and shock at
the horrendous discovery of ritual killers'
den in the state.
"The situation calls for sober reflection
from all and sundry. To be confronted
with this cheap politicking in the name of
infantile accusation by the Accord Party is
like opening the fresh wounds of the
people of the state who are still mourning
their dead and lamenting the ugly
incident."
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