A kingpin of a notorious criminal gang that has been on the list of security men for various crimes has been arrested in Delta State.
He had been declared wanted for banditry, kidnapping, robbery and extortion.
The suspect had been terrorising farmers in Gbelebu community on the fringes of Okomu Palm Plantation in Ovia South-West of Edo State.
The suspect, Joshua Owiekan, who was said to have fled Yenagoa in Bayelsa State and Port Harcourt to take refuge in Gbelebu, was reportedly nabbed along Sapele-Warri Road along with one of his cohorts after subjecting farmers at Gbelebu, an Ijaw community as well as neighboring Marindoti settlement peopled by Yorubas to various hardships and maltreatments.
The Marindoti community, which is made up of Eto, Baba Dele, Dipe camps, had earlier petitioned the Edo State Police Command and the Department of State Services over threats to them by a 20-man gang allegedly led by the said Joshua.
In the petition dated November 3, 2022 signed by Oluwafemi Esan, the people alleged that peace had eluded them since the suspect relocated to Gbelebu.
Confirming the arrest, the state Police public relations officer, DSP Bright Edafe, said he was in police custody.
“He was coming from Bayelsa and was arrested during a stop and search along Warri -Sapele road with two locally made pistols recovered from his vehicle,” he said.
