LANRE LABINJO: IDPIL-LJTF HAS RECORDED 185 CULTISTS ARREST, 12 COURT CASES ONGOING, NUMEROUS PHONE SNATCHERS APPREHENDED ®™√ INN Nigeria ©
6 min read
GIVE US AN INSIGHT INTO THE SCORECARD OF THE IDPIL-LJTF FOR TWO YEARS.
To God be t the Glory, within a short period, we were
able to get the majority of the criminal elements arrested. As I speak, we have arrested about 185 members of various cult groups. Presently, some of them have been prosecuted, while others who were involved in capital offences like murder and rape are still in Kirikiri and Ikoyi today.
WHAT ABOUT ARMED ROBBERS, HOW MANY HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO ARREST?
We don’t have many cases of armed robbers. We only have some cultists who happen to be phone and laptop snatchers. So, we only now have a few numbers of phone snatching in Ikorodu. I cannot even give an account of cases of how many we have arrested.
But it falls between the cultists and those who are taking hard drugs. So that is what we have in Ikorodu. But the major one we have in Ikorodu that happens to be the genesis of our problem is the land grabbers.
Land Grabbers are the ones that fund these bad boys; the cultists, the hoodlums because they are the ones
taking them to some of these farms and villages and that is where some of these clashes that we have in
Ikorodu Division usually starts from.
CAN YOU MENTION SOME OF THESE AREAS?
Areas like Isiwu, Imota, Agbowa and some of these other areas. You cannot combat crime in Ikorodu without visiting Ogijo. Ogijo is under Ogun State. We have another one in Emuren. Emuren is under Ogun
State. The Eye Guys use Ogijo as their hideout, while the Aye Guys use Emuren as their hideout. And some
of the arrests we have made so far were made in Some of these areas.
CAN YOU GIVE US AN INSIGHT INTO SOME OF THESE OPERATIONS?
We went to Emuren, we had an operation with the CP Strike Team. We left Ikorodu to Gberigbe at 1 AM,
getting to Gberigbe, we discovered that the land grabbers were already on the ground there, and as we have in Ikorodu, we met some of them with guns, but we could not do anything because we were trying to avoid a situation whereby we tag them and they tag us or relate us to something we do not know much about, so we left and moved to Igbokuta.
We raided Igbokuta and arrested two People with one locally-made gun. We left there and those we arrested at lgbo-Okuta gave us information that their colleagues were in Emuren. On getting to Emuren, we arrested about 27 of them.
In the course of our interrogation, one of them confessed that he was a member of the gang that kidnapped a Lebanese in Agbowa Ikosi about three
years back and we immediately linked the case to the IRT and God be the Glory, we apprehended the others because when we handed him over, the IRT worked with us to apprehend the others. He said the AK47 rifles they used were still in Owutu.
On getting to Owutu, in the course of our tracking, we could not get the person, we then moved to Makun in
Sagamu, where we arrested one person. From there we moved to Iyana Ipaja, where we eventually
recovered the AK47 rifle and we handed the case over to the IRT.
Some members were reported to be in Imota, so we moved there. In the course of looking for one mister
“Akeem”, he ran away and we recovered his bartender pistol. We arrested two others in Imota who led us back to Emuren, where we recovered five locally made Runs and two b barretters in the operation.
We also extended our operation to lgbogbo, where we arrested guys and recovered 1 one locally made gun. This led us to the Ikorodu Round-about, where we arrested two seven guys with one locally cut-to size gun.
Those we arrested at the round-about led us to Ofin and Oreta, where we arrested some of their members. We also extended this operation to Baiyeku, where we arrested an additional five guys.
Moving back to Ikorodu, we strategized to move to Ogijo, where we arrested a certain “Blue Jesus”. Blue
Jesus was arrested by the IDPIL officers, Igbogbo Police Division and Anti-cultists about three years ago. We arrested him with three locally made guns and someone who was killed in Itamaga. We handed him over to the Anti-Cultists who in turn handed him over to the Homicide Department in Panti.
WHAT IS THE CURRENT STATUS OF THESE ARRESTS?
I was there for an interview where the three cultists confessed that they are part of the team that disturbs
the peace of Ikorodu. They also laid down names of people they have killed in the process which includes: a vulcanizer in Itamaga and Itumeko respectively.
We heard about them coming back and we sprang into action again we were able to arrest one “Jelili” in a boutique shop at Ota-ona, the owner of which they killed, at about 10 am. To God Be the Glory, we apprehended about two of them for whom I still go to court.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER YOU HAND THEM OVER TO THE POLICE?
I always stand as a witness to the cases of some of these guys in question, whenever we get them arrested. And, looking at the records, I have about 42-43 cases to attend at the Lagos High Court. Those who are alleged to have cases to be answered.
There was a case sometime in June 2022, where a wine store was stormed and robbed on Obafemi Awolowo Road. Looking at the CCTV footage, we observed that the perpetrators were a 6-man team of members of the Eye Cult group, led by “Ika”. lka was later killed in a robbery incident in Ibadan, while the other members of his team were arrested by the Local Joint Task Force, they are Spyro, Onyabo and the remaining members of the team. They confessed their involvement in the robbery on Obafemi Awolowo Road.
WHAT HAS CHANGED, WITH THE LAUNCH OF THE IDPIL LOCAL SECURITY JOINT TASK FORCE?
We were a lot encouraged when the IDPIL team was introduced, Some of us had been using our cars to secure this entire Division, asides from doing it for free. So, Odofin Adewunmi Ogunsanya led IDPIL.
The team serves as enough motivation for us to do more, especially the fact that vehicles were also provided, because in the past, we rented motorcycles, while some of us used our cars, Today, we have over 17 vehicles and over 50 motorcycles to combat the criminals, courtesy of the IDPIL.
This is the reason the lord Division Communities have been so calm.
WHAT CAN YOU ALLUDE TO THE SUCCESSES RECORDED SO FAR TOO?
Non-indigene security personnel cannot understand our environment as we do. We know the places and all the neighbourhoods. We are on the ground. We can’t watch them destroy our town. Once we identify the criminals, we track them and follow them into their hideouts until we finally fish them out.
FINAL WORDS