It was an emotional scene at the Kwara State Police Command last weekend when a 38-year-old Police Traffic Officer, Haruna Yusuf, confessed to picking a police service pistol from a mosque and selling it to cult group members in Kwara State.
The missing pistol led to the dismissal of the former Station Officer in charge of the Omu-Aran division, Ehigimetor Ileso, who booked for it but could not return it to the armoury.
Quite sadly, that dismissal led to Ileso’s untimely demise one year after the unfortunate incident.
According to police reports, Sergeant Yusuf, who is attached to the Police Traffic unit, met his waterloo, following the arrest of some suspected cultists by operatives of the Force Intelligence Response Team.
The suspected cultists, Tajudeen Olalekan Hammed, Chukwudi Eze, Alebo Elijah, Alebo Isreal, Abimbola Olaonipekun and Olarinde Abiodun, left Kwara State to unleash mayhem on members of the rival confraternity in Osun State.
The reports indicated that some weapons, which included the police pistol, were recovered from the suspects and during the investigation, one of them, Eze, a Disk Jogger, revealed that he bought the weapons from the policeman.
According to 33-year-old Eze, who hails from Enugu State, ”Aside from being a DJ, I also sell phone accessories at Traffic Junction. I bought a police pistol and a locally made gin from the police officer for self–defence because of the nature of my work. Later, I discovered that I could not use the police pistol, I sold the two guns to “Rector”, who is a student of Kwara State Polytechnic “.
On his part, the policeman, Haruna, said, ”I joined the police as a Constable in 2008. I am from Benue State but I have been serving in Kwara State since I was enlisted. I was first posted to Omu Aran Division and later transferred to other divisions in Kwara but I am now back in Omu Aran.”
”I didn’t steal the pistol. I don’t know what came over me. when I saw it at the mosque. I can only say that I am sorry. Out of the two arms that I sold to him, one belonged to the Omu Aran Divisional Police Station, while the other one was locally-made. That one that belonged to the division, was what I found outside the mosque behind the police station.”
”I didn’t know that it belonged to the SO It was about three years ago. I sold it to the DJ for N47,000 while I sold the locally made to him for N25,000. When I picked the gun, it didn’t occur to me to take it to the station.
”Before God and man, I have never been involved in any case of stealing before The SO is late now. When I heard that the division was looking for the gun. I was afraid to recover it from the DJ and hand it over to the armourer and I was not at the division when the Station Officer was being tried for the missing pistol”.
Confirming the arrest of the police Sergeant and suspected cult members, Osun State Commissioner of Police, Wale Olokode, said exhibits recovered from the gang included “one police Beretta pistol, one locally-made revolver pistol, two locally fabricated pistol, one local cut- to -size short gun, 11 live cartridges, five knives, three battle axes and one cutlass“. – With Vanguard report
