The anti-cultism unit of Osun State Police Command has arrested a wanted cultist, Rasheed Hammed, who has been terrorising Ede and its environs.
Hammed, popularly known as Rasidi Baale Oko’lu’, has been trailed by security agents for allegedly causing the deaths of many, including two policemen.
The suspect had made a scary viral video to people of the Ede community and threatened to return and kill more.
Oko-lu, a welder by vocation, was arrested at about 4:00 a.m. in his hideout in the state capital and is currently in police custody.
A security source informed The Guardian that his arrest followed a tip-off that Oko’lu had returned to town after about five months before his hideout was invaded.
The source said his two legs were fired with bullets after he was nabbed.
Aside from killing the cops during an encounter with him a few months ago, ‘Rasidi Baale Oko’lu’ was also linked to the deaths of Hassan Adedeji, a Higher National Diploma (HND) graduate of Banking and Finance of Federal Polytechnic, Ede, who was awaiting his call-up letter, as well as, an Okada rider, whose identity was not made known.
He was declared wanted by Osun State Police Command, who warned that anyone who harboured him would also be treated as a criminal.
A statement by the Command’s Police Public Relations Officer, Yemisi Opalola, in March, indicated that Hammed was wanted in connection with the murder, arson, ritual killing and armed robbery.
“Suspect has been causing menace in Ede and the entire Osun State. Anybody who harbours the suspect will be treated by the police as an accomplice to the crimes. Anybody having useful information about his whereabouts will be handsomely rewarded, ” the statement added.
MEANWHILE, there was pandemonium in Egbatedo area of the state yesterday, when suspected thugs and cultists clashed over the death of a suspected political thug popularly known as Spanal.
Spanal was shot dead by suspected cultists at Oke-Ijetu, Ilesa-Garage area of Osogbo, Osogbo Local Council, alongside his seven-year-old daughter, a few hours after his wife gave birth.
Sources said that some suspected thugs loyal to Spanal allegedly stormed Egbatedo area to revenge the killing of a notorious thug said to be a close ally of the Chairman of the Osogbo branch of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Kazeem Oyewale, popularly called Asiri Eniba.
ALSO, Osun State Commissioner of Police (CP), Wale Olokode, has ordered the immediate disbandment of CP’s Surveillance Squad over complaints of misconduct against the personnel.
Olokode ordered all personnel attached to the squad to report to the state’s headquarters for redeployment. The dissolution, according to a statement by the Command’s spokesperson, SP Yemisi Opalola, came on the heels of complaints of unprofessional conduct exhibited by the personnel of the squad.
While the investigation commenced at the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) over gross misconduct by the squad, Olokode ordered all personnel attached to the squad to report to the State Command’s headquarters.
“The CP is using this medium to state that, this will serve as a deterrent to other tactical squads in the Command, as the Command under his watch will not tolerate or condone any act that is unbecoming of a Police officer.
“The public is hereby enjoined to rekindle their trust in the Police, as the Command is committed to giving them improved policing services that will stand the test of time,” the statement read.
