Tunde Adeleke, Osogbo
No fewer than 20 suspected criminals arrested for various crimes across Osun State, including three suspected highway armed robbers, have been paraded by the state police command.
This is just as one of the armed robbery suspects, Godwin Emmanuel, confessed to stealing a police officer’s phone from a patrol van while being transported to the Osun State Police Command.
Emmanuel who was arrested along with two others, Olajide Kareem and Mike Emmanuel were accused of robbing residents and sexually assaulting a 65-year-old woman on the Ilesa-Osu Expressway in Osun State.
Speaking with newsmen, at a Police criminal parade in Osogbo, Osun State , Godwin confessed that, “I was arrested for armed robbery. When I was been transported to the Police Command in Osogbo, inside the police patrol van that I was conveyed, I stole a phone. I don’t know that it is a police phone. I beg make una no vex.
“I told the police not to be angry with me. I don’t know when I did that. I took the phone into the police cell without them knowing. I removed the SIM card, I want to use the phone to call my people because they don’t know I have been arrested for armed robbery.
“I have been here for about 2 months. They later came to search me in the cell where I was and discovered the phone on me. Please tell them to forgive me. I won’t do it again.”
Earlier, while parading the suspects, the Spokesperson of Osun State Police Command, Yemisi Opalola said the suspects, during their operations robbed many people of their jewelries, phones cash, and other valuables.
She added that during one of the robbery incidents, a bus driver was shot in the leg, while a female passenger was raped by one of the suspects.
She said, “the three suspects rob motorists and passengers of their belongings. In one of the incidents, a bus driver was shot in his leg but was subsequently rushed to Seventh-day Adventist Hospital in Ile-Ife where he received treatment.
“Consequently, Olajide was arrested in the bush and he confessed that he was a member of a five-man gang of armed robbers who came from the Ikorodu area in Lagos state to perpetrate their acts in Osun State. The other two suspects were arrested.”
