A 42-year-old man who identified himself as Oji Okoro has been arrested by operatives of the Edo State Command for allegedly sodomizing a 12-year-old boy.

 

Okoro was paraded alongside 15 suspects for various crimes including alleged kidnapping, vandalism, staged kidnapping, unlawful possession of firearms, among other offences.

 

Parading the suspects, the Command’s Public Relations Officer, Eno Ikoedem, said: “This man (Oji Okoro) committed an unnatural offence, he defied a boy of a 12-year-old boy.”

 

Also paraded was one Donatus Martins, 26, and his friend for allegedly vandalising cables and equipment belonging to Africa Independent Television (AIT), Benin office.

 

Though the police spokesperson alleged the suspects had vandalised equipment worth over N4 million from the office since it stopped operation, the suspects confessed they had gone to the office for vandalism and sold “the first one 75,000, we now paid the bikeman N5,000. The first one, we stole 3 DVDs and 3 cables of copper wire. The second operation was 90,000, and the buyer gave us 70,000, so 20,000 is reaming. It was during the third operation that we were caught.

 

Martins confessed as a bricklayer anytime there is no job for him, he and his friend look for irons to sell to buyers to make a living.

 

Paraded, also, was Chigozie Anthony, who allegedly lured a girl from tiktok to his house, kidnapped her and demanded N500,000 from the girl parents, which they paid before he was arrested. But Anthony denied the allegations, claiming that the girl was his girlfriend and they both planned the act.

 

He added: “It’s a plan between me and my girlfriend. We have been chatting for over more than a month now. So she came to my place, and told me that she wants to do business. She said after the work that she’s learning now, which is nursing, she will need 800 and something thousand. She will finish her nursing training next month. She then said that I should hide her so her family would pay money. That was how I hid her and demanded for N500,000 which the parents paid.”

 

Ajayi Godwin was arrested and paraded for alleged unlawful possession of firearms at Auchi, just as Akinla Lawrence and his friend were paraded for allegedly vandalising pipelines at Okada axis, Ovia North East Local Government Area of the state.