The Ogun State Police Command says it has arrested a legal practitioner, Barrister Kayode Oshiyemi, over alleged connivance with some suspected criminals to fraudulently extort money from a businessman in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.
The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Abimbola Oyeyemi, in a statement issued in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital copy of which was sent to The DEFENDER, said the criminals the lawyer planned with were trying to extort money from Chief Executive Officer of Al-Amin Farm, situated at Imagbon area of Ijebu Ode, Alhaji Shakirudeen Olufowobi.
The arrest of the lawyer, Oyeyemi said, followed a petition written by the businessman to the Commissioner of Police, CP Ahmed Iliyasu, in which he alleged that the lawyer and some hoodlums were after his life.
In the petition, he alleged that the lawyer, having failed in his several attempts to make him part with millions of Naira, had perfected plan in connivance with some hoodlums to either rope him in a case he knew nothing about or get him kidnapped for Ransom.
Alhaji Olufowobi said some of the hoodlums were earlier arrested on in his farm for stealing.
On the strength of the petition, the Commissioner of Police, CP Ahmed Iliyasu, who was recently honoured by Prince Bola Ajibola-led Crescent University Abeokuta (CUAB) for doing well in ridding Ogun State of all kinds of criminalities, directed the Officer-in-Charge of FSARS, SP Uba Adam, to discreetly investigate the petition.
In compliance with the CP’s order, the outfit, ASP Egbeyemi said, embarked on a technical based investigation and also technically monitored the activities of the said lawyer.
The statement read in part: “Their efforts paid off when the lawyer was caught on tape where he was planning with others to use any possible means to make the businessman cough out the sum of #250 million which according to him will be shared among all those who participated, in order to teach the complainant, Alhaji Shakirudeen Olufowobi, the lesson of his life for only God knows reason.
“Arrested along with the lawyer are: Adeborode Ogunlaja, Sodiq Owolabi, Abolaji Alabi, Mukaila Abolaji, Abiodun Adebayo and Abolaji Adebola.
“On interrogation, Mukaila Abolaji narrated how the lawyer in collaboration with Adeborode Ogunlaja lured him into the plan to fraudulently extort money from the complainant and how the money will be shared among them, stating that he reluctantly keyed into the plan because of the amount of money involved.
“In his own statement, Abiodun Adebayo, who regretted knowing the lawyer, accused him of having once used him to profess a fake miracle in a crusade organised by one of his pastor friends where he was asked to tie a life tortoise on his chest and come out while the crusade was going on to confess being a strong member of an occultist group who is disturbed by the pastor’s prayer. The allegation the lawyer was unable to deny,” ASP Oyeyemi said.
Meanwhile, the CP Iliyasu has ordered that the suspects be charged to court as soon as the investigation is concluded.
