Police arrest suspected killer of Ekiti monarchs

The Ekiti State Police Command has arrested one suspect linked to the killing of two traditional rulers in Ekiti State last Monday.

The Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Dare Ogundare, said that the suspect, Babusa Lede, had confessed to involvement in the killing of the two monarchs, adding that efforts were on to apprehend others involved.

The traditional rulers, the Elesun of Esun Ekiti, Oba David Babatunde Ogunsakin and the Olumojo of Imojo-Ekiti, Oba Samuel Olusola, were killed by the gunmen; while the Alara of Ara (Ikole), Oba Sunday Fatoba, escaped being killed during the attack along Oke Ako-Irele Road.

Ogundare, who was Commissioner of Police in the state command until his promotion last week, said, “It took the combined efforts of security agencies in the state to apprehend the suspect.”

The AIG, who spoke in Ado Ekiti, the state capital, while parading Lede and other suspects on Sunday evening, said that no arrest was made during the release operation of the abducted school pupils and their teachers.

He, however, told journalists that some suspects had been arrested at Oke Osun, in Ikere Ekiti, Igbo Okah and Iju-Ikere boundary forest.

The AIG, who said that the police would never encourage ransom payment, lauded the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, and the Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji’s interventions in the release of the abducted school children and teachers.

Ogundare said that efforts were being made to arrest the kidnappers of the school pupils and their teachers.

Lede, while speaking with newsmen, confessed to being among the suspects who attacked the traditional rulers, saying, “We were five that came to the road for the operation. I am a herder and I have my cows in the bush. The other four threatened to shoot me if I did not join them in the operation.

“They brought the ammunition and I was going about in the bush with my cows when they said I should join. When we were in the bush, we saw the vehicle conveying the three traditional rulers from a distance and we jumped on the road.

“We didn’t plan to kill the two traditional rulers, but I would not know what happened, and my friends shot them and we ran away. They left the bush immediately.”

The suspect added that “they have been kidnapping people for ransom. I joined them once for it; they gave me N5,000 from the money they collected.

“It was when I came to town from the bush to buy Garri that I was arrested by the security operatives.”