Police parades 18 for disrupting crossover party in Osun

The Osun State police command on Tuesday paraded eighteen suspects arrested in connection with the disruption of the New Year crossover party organised by the Osun State Government before journalists at the police headquarters.

Parading the suspects alongside 23 others nabbed for other crimes, including armed robbery, possession of Indian hemp and kidnap for ransom, at the state command headquarters in Osogbo, the Commissioner of Police, Johnson Kokumo, said they would soon be arraigned.

Kokumo said those arrested for disrupting the party acted in a way that was capable of disturbing the public peace, adding that the suspects caused civil disturbance at the Freedom Park venue of the event.

The CP stated, “While people were engaged in prayers and happily expecting the New Year to meet them and members of their families, these ones took the law into their own hands at the Freedom Park.

“They embarked on an act capable of disturbing the public peace. We have rounded them up and they will soon appear before the court. Eighteen of them were arrested.”

Also paraded were two men arrested for the abduction of one Alhaji Amodu in 2017.

The CP explained that sometime in 2017, one Alhaji Amodu was kidnapped in Osun State and taken to a hideout in Ekiti State, where the sum of N3m was collected before he was released.

He stated, “We employed intelligence and community-led policing and in the course of our investigation, we were able to trace the kidnap suspects and we effected their arrest.

“The victim was able to identify them as those who kidnapped him and took him to Ekiti State. The suspects are Bolaji Jimoh and Babatunde Usman. They are interstate kidnap suspects.”