• Arrest two over missing woman in Anambra

The Ogun State Police Command says its Violent Crime Response Unit (VCRU), in collaboration with detectives from Isara Area Command and Isara Division, arrested 30 males during a suspected cult initiation procession at Isara-Remo.
   
Still on suspected criminal activities, the Anambra State Police Command said it has arrested two suspected assailants behind the murder of a 33-year-old woman.      
  
The deceased (name withheld) from Oraifite community in Ekwusigo Local Council of the state, was reported missing three months ago, all efforts to trace her whereabouts proving abortive.
  
In a statement yesterday, Oluseyi Babaseyi, spokesperson for the command, confirmed that the operation was carried out on June 16, 2026, at about 4:00 p.m., following credible intelligence that a group of suspected hoodlums was holding an unlawful gathering involving initiation processes in an uncompleted building at Isara-Remo.
   
Babaseyi said the VCRU swiftly mobilised a combined team of operatives from the Isara Area Command and Isara Division to the location, dispersed the gathering and arrested the suspects, adding that four vehicles allegedly abandoned at the scene during their attempted escape were also recovered.
  
Other exhibits recovered were a jackknife, a local drum, a rattle (sekere) and bottles suspected to have been used for alcohol during the event.
   
According to Babaseyi, the suspects have been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Abeokuta, for further investigation, while efforts are ongoing to apprehend some fleeing suspects.
   
Commending the operation, the Commissioner of Police, Bode Ojajuni, said it was a clear demonstration of the command’s sustained intelligence-led policing strategy and zero tolerance for violent crimes and unlawful assemblies. He reiterated that cultism and related activities will not be condoned in any part of the state.
   
Meanwhile, in the Anambra incident, the deceased’s mother was said to have lodged a report of her missing daughter with the Divisional Police Headquarters at Oraifite on March 13, 2026.
   
It was gathered that an unidentified lifeless body of a woman, found inside a culvert near Jesus Bus Stop in Oraifite, turned out to be hers, as later identified by the deceased’s father.
  
Confirming their arrest, spokesperson for the state police command, Tochukwuu Ikenga, said that “following the transfer of the Case to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Awka for investigation, the operatives, leveraging intelligence and digital forensic leads, eventually arrested the two suspects on June 6, 2026.
   
He identified them as Thankgod Ikechukwu Ikwugwara, 26, and Makuochukwu Uzoigwe, 20, adding that upon his arrest, Ikwugwara claimed to have been in a relationship with the deceased for about three years, but denied any knowledge that she was married.
  
“He further alleged that after a disagreement with the deceased’s husband, he developed a strange illness that affected his sight and, out of resentment, plotted the attack,” the police stated.
   
“The suspect further confessed that on March 13, 2026, he lured the deceased to his residence under the guise of seeking help due to illness. Upon her arrival, he and the second suspect allegedly attacked her with a machete, resulting in her death. 
   
“The suspects subsequently disposed of the body in a culvert near Jesus Bus Stop, Oraifite, in the early hours of the following day.”