By Abdullahi Olesin, Ilorin
Kwara state police have paraded one Akinsola Babatunde (a.k.a Mr White), a member of a gang that planned to organise a strip/naked party in Ilorin, the state capital.
The state police commissioner, Mohammed Bagega, said that credible intelligence carried out on the criminal activities of the gang led to the arrest of the suspect at No 16, Achimugun street, Flower Garden, G.R.A, Ilorin.
Bagega, who said that the organisers of the strip party had advertised the show on social media for prospective subscribers at N20,000 per head, added that they planned to hold it in lounges, club houses, service apartments etc. in the metropolis and its environs.
He added that, “immoral and illegal action of Mr. White and his accomplices clearly contradicted the COVID-19 protocol and also promoted crime and criminality.
“Operatives of the State Intelligence Bureau, attached to the command, carried out a string operation involving tactical undercover and maneuver. We actually played along with them by posing as interested persons. We paid the advertised sum of money to a given bank account.
With the cooperation of the other stakeholders, we nabbed the suspect while he went to cash the money in the bank.
“Effort is ongoing to arrest the fleeing members of the gang and they will be charged to court as soon as the investigation is completed”.
The police boss also paraded two of the suspected kidnappers of four Turkish nationals that were kidnapped and rescued in July 2019 at Gbugbu village in Edu local government area of the state.
“In a concerted effort by the men of the command and members of the community, four of the six armed gangs were arrested with one AK47 rifle as at the time of the incident, the victims were rescued alive without payment of ransom.
“The arrested kidnappers mentioned the suspects being paraded today, who had escaped as being members of their syndicate. Ever since, the command has been in the search for the two fleeing suspects.
‘Actionable intelligence, however, indicated that the suspects were planning to carry out another operation and my operatives swooped on them and were arrested.
“During investigation, the suspects confessed to be members of the kidnap syndicate that abducted the four Turkish citizens. They also confessed to have participated in several other kidnap incidents, especially along the Enugu/Abakaliki axis of the South East of the
country,” the police boss stated.
