The suspects, Wasiu Olanrewaju and Ahmed Hamsat, are both 26 years old. They were arrested by men of the Ogun State Police Command.
They were accused of pipeline vandalism and armed robbery. The men however denied the allegations. The Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ahmed Iliyasu, who presented the suspects to journalists at the command headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta, further alleged that the suspects were involved in car snatching and hijacking of trucks around Ogun, Lagos and Ibadan axis.
Iliyasu said that the two suspects were arrested at Oke-Efon area of Abeokuta. Iliyasu added that the suspects’ partners in crime were still at large. He further said that the two men were caught with two pump action guns, one cut-to-size pistol, two live cartridges and assorted charms. According to him, the police would continue to wage war against criminals to ensure drastic reduction of crime in the state.
Iliyasu said: “On August 8, 2016, at about 7:30pm, at Oke-Efon area of Abeokuta, two suspected vandals and armed robbery gang, were arrested and some weapons recovered from them. Investigation revealed that they were involved in various crimes like car snatching, armed robbery and hijacking trucks around Ogun, Lagos and Ibadan axis.”
The suspects, however, refuted the narratives of the police. Olanrewaju and Hamsat said they were not involved in banditry. The suspects said they were security guards, hired by one SOJ to safeguard pipelines along Ajebo area, off the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Olanrewaju said: “We were boxers before. We even have boxing certificates. We used to train at the Adamasingba Stadium in Ibadan.
When we had nothing to do again, we decided to look for gainful employment. We were hired by SOJ to guard pipelines. He promised to pay us N50, 000 as monthly salary to guard the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) facility.” Olanrewaju, however, lamented that SOJ has refused to pay their salary and even defaulted in their contract agreement. He said: “We were hired by SOJ. He was the one that got the pipeline protection contract.
We were coming to Abeokuta to see him. We wanted him to pay our salary arrears because we are hungry. We decided to take the weapons along with us because we were worried of leaving them behind. We didn’t want anyone to steal them. We have a house built for us at the NNPC pipeline area at Ajebo.” According to him, they had both worked for SOJ for seven months, but he had only paid once. He said: “SOJ owed us six month salary arrears.
Part of the agreement was that he would pay us N5, 000 as food allowance. But in the past three weeks, he hadn’t paid us the food allowance. He promised to pay us N50, 000 as our monthly salary, but ended up paying us N40, 000 for the first salary. Further explaining why they were in possession of Pump Action Rifles, Olarenwaju said: “We didn’t want to hide our guns at the safe house.”
He said they were not using guns before in their job as guards until some pipeline vandals, who were later discovered to be Niger Delta militants, attacked their base and killed one of their colleagues. It was after the death of their colleague, they decided guns should be an essential part of apparatus needed for pipeline protection.
Recalling the day suspected militants attacked their base, Olanrewaju said: “We got home and found out that the militants have vandalised our safe house. They shattered glasses and other things. But they didn’t discover where we kept these guns. We decided to go and meet our boss to inform him about the development and discuss about our salary. We were on our way when the police arrested us.”
Olanrewaju, who insisted that they had never taken part in any robbery, said that the police impounded their Toyota Hilux van, which they normally used in pipeline monitoring. Asked whether their guns had licence, Olanrewaju said: “We don’t know whether the guns were licensed. We were hired to guard oil pipelines. We were given orientation on how to handle guns. But we’ve never used those guns! It wasn’t long our employer gave them to us.
The guns are basically for protection, not robbery. We’ve never shot at anybody before. When the police searched our vehicle, they found the guns. Only the two of us were in the vehicle and they got the vehicle impounded.” Corroborating Olarenwaju’s story, Hamsat said that they had never engaged in any criminal activity.
Hamsat added: “We were hired to protect the oil pipelines. Vandals killed one of our colleagues when we started this job. The vandals invaded our base and chased us into the bush.” The number one policeman said that efforts were on to arrest SOJ.https://newtelegraphonline.com/guns-fight-militants-vandals-not-robbery/
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