The Police Command in Oyo State has arrested 11 suspects over alleged cultism, armed robbery and unlawful possession of firearms in various locations within the state.
The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Olayinka Ayanlade, disclosed this to newsmen while parading the suspects at the Command’s headquarters, Eleyele, Ibadan, on Monday.
Ayanlade said the exhibits recovered from the suspects were five guns—including a revolver pistol, a Beretta pistol, a pump-action gun, and a locally made cut-to-size pistol—along with four cutlasses.
He said that the arrest formed part of the ongoing investigations and operations of the Command in ridding Oyo State of crime and criminal activities, especially violent crime.
He disclosed that one of the arrested suspects was a very bright physics student of an institution in the state, who had won several awards, but turned out to be the leader of a cult group, Eiye Confraternity.
The PPRO said that the student was arrested together with his colleagues in possession of a firearm, a cutlass, and ammunition.
He added that other arrested suspects were a syndicate that specialised in robbing unsuspecting Nigerians of their possessions, especially phones, in different locations within Ibadan and its environs.
He said the leader of the suspected armed robbers had earlier been arrested, prosecuted and was currently in a correctional facility.
Ayanlade said that the suspected armed robbers were arrested as a result of painstaking intelligence gathering with the support and collaboration of members of the public.
He said operatives of the command monitoring unit arrested the suspects in their various hideouts.
One of the armed robbery suspects, a 35-year-old, told journalists that his gang operated with cutlasses to instil fear in their victims before snatching their mobile phones.
The suspect said the gang snatched 10 expensive phones, which they eventually sold for between N40,000 and N50,000.
Also speaking in an interview, the suspected cultist student said he was initiated as the leader of the group a year ago after graduating from an institution in the Apata area of Ibadan.
The suspect said that he could not really say what pushed him into joining the cult group.
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