AZ: 5250/OY/PPRO/ VOL. 5/145 26th May, 2020.
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Press Release
RE: ROBBERS RAID IBADAN COMMUNITY, INJURED MANY
The attention of the Commissioner of Police, Oyo State Police Command, CP. Shina T. Olukolu psc(+) have been drawn to a sensational panic inducing story captioned “ Robbers raid Ibadan community, injure many” which was published in some of the widely read and respected Nigerian Newspapers precisely on the 22nd May, 2020.
2. But contrary to the contents of the story and its narratives, the publications was an apparent deliberate twist of the account of events to create sensation and panic as opposed to the time tested and respected ethics of the profession which will dampen the spirit of the hard working officers and men of the Nigeria Police, Oyo State Command. The facts was that, there was a distress call at about 0200hrs of 21st May, 2020 to the Divisional Police Headquarters, Apete, Ibadan from Jemade Street, Yidi Area, Apete Ibadan that some unspecified number of hoodlums had forcefully entered into a dwelling house with an intent to steal. Consequent upon this, the Police Patrol Team attached to the Division was alerted and deployed to the scene. On arrival, some members of the Vigilante group in the community were met on ground and they explained to the Police Personnel that the hoodlums had succeeded in dispossessing a woman of her Techno Android phone and at the sight of security agents; they fled the scene to evade being arrested.
3. In the morning, the Divisional Police Officer, (DPO) Apete led a team of Police detectives/Patrol team to the community for an on the spot assessment/ facts finding. This investigative and confidence building visit revealed a fresh development that aside from the woman that allegedly lost her phone, six persons believed to be students of The Polytechnic, Ibadan living in the area also lost their phones in the overnight incident including one Najeem Atanda Raheem ‘m’, the deputy photo editor of Guardian newspaper a resident of the same area who allegedly alerted the police control room of the incident and the alleged source of the story. He however denied vehemently the contents of the Newspaper account. Najeem Atanda Raheem explained further that the purported story that his wife sustained machete cut on her hand and his son Faruk was hit with a rod, which made him faint was not the case, but that it was his wife that lost her handset while he Najeem escaped the attack. When all other victims were interviewed, they gave a vivid account that they were not injured nor did they sustain any form of injury as stated in the publications. They listed the items stolen from them and their values. The alleged victims includes, (i) Binuyo Iyanuoluwa ‘f’, (ii) Ojelana Adebayo ‘m’, (iii) Najeem Atanda Raheem ‘m’, (iv) Oyetunji Peter ‘m’ and (v) Ishola Ajibola ‘m’.
4. Further investigation revealed that the hoodlums numbering about eight (8) were suspected to have gained entry into the two houses by scaling over the fence which were considerably low and forcefully removed the burglary proof before the hurried attack and escaped from the scene before the arrival of the Police teams at the scene.
Although, phones and unspecified minimal amount of cash were stolen from the victims but none of these victims was injured. The hoodlums whose age ranged between 19-22 years and came on foot went to the scene with iron rods and sticks and managed to escape in different directions after the incident before Police team arrived on distress call.
5. As part of efforts to reassure the Community of their safety, the Divisional Police Office, (DPO) was directed to convene security meeting with the community members/leaders including the Chairman, the executives and the Vigilante group in the area where strategies were mapped out and adopted to prevent a re-occurrence of such incident in the future.
SP. Fadeyi Olugbenga
Police Public Relations Officer
For: Commissioner of Police
Oyo State Police Command
