Police quiz mother of two over missing corpses of four policemen

IGP, Solomon Arase

A 35-year-old mother two has started telling operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad(SARS), Ikeja, Lagos State, all the knows about the attack on a team of 11 policemen by vandals at the Obadore area of Igando.

The woman, identified as Ann Timu, was the person who made the fateful call on Thursday that led to vandals, armed with pump action rifles, attacking the police team. By the time the smoke cleared from the smoking guns, four policemen had been killed and their corpses dragged into the river by the vandals. Two other policemen were also injured and still in hospital.

Since the discovery that the police team impersonated the Inspector General of Police Monitoring Unit and embarked on illegal operation at Obadore pipeline vandalism site, the IGP, Mr. Solomon Arase has ordered SARS to take over the case, investigate the surviving policemen and fish out the vandals.

The Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Mr. Expression Omoego who led the ill-fate team, has been transferred to Force Headquarters, Abuja, on the orders of Arase. He was transferred on Saturday.

SARS has so far recovered 3,000 nylon bags of 100 litre fuel. The operatives moved these bags in six trucks.

Fielding questions from SARS detectives, Timu admitted to making the call, adding that she never knew the vandals would open fire.

The police source added: “She said the team was asking for N10m bribe, so that they wouldn’t arrest her. She said the money was too much. According to her, they are used to settling different teams of policemen, but that team that came on Thursday was strange to her. She said the team would have noticed the approaching armed vandals, but that the members of the team were busy, loading gallons filled with fuel into their vehicle. They didn’t see the gunmen and didn’t have any chance.”

According to a police source, Timu confessed that she had been into the illegal business for more than a year now.

The source revealed that SARS operatives have repeatedly combed the Obadore, where the shooting took place, hoping to find the corpses of their four colleagues, but their efforts continued to be futile. “There’s wear that they dismembered them and threw their remains into the river.”

It would be recalled that last week Thursday, gun fire rocked the Obadore area after vandals armed with pump action rifles opened fire on 11 policemen who came to arrest and collect bribe of N10 million from them.

They arrested a lady, later identified as Timu. She had told them that the N10m was too much, begging for N1m, but the team refused. She later put a call across to other vandals, who came and opened fire on the team. Four policemen were killed, two injured and six rifles taken by the vandals. The corpses of the four policemen were taken by the vandals. The DSP who led the illegal operation was ordered by Arase to be detained. Two other fleeing members of the team are still at large.