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OPINION: Dele Momodu Vs. Fani-Kayode: The Pot Fighting The Kettle

Published

2 months ago

March 27, 2026

Tunde Odesola

Back in the Italy of 44 BC, there lived a babalawo called Spurinna. Spurinna was a haruspice. In ancient Rome, a haruspice was a priest or soothsayer who practised divination by inspecting the entrails–specifically the liver and gallbladder–of sacrificed animals, to interpret the messages of the gods. Spurinna was popular in his time and was much sought after. He was like Nigeria’s present-day A-list religious leaders.

So, it was to Spurinna that the Roman military general, Julius Caesar, went when the exceptionally important month of March beckoned. In ancient Rome, March was the first month of the year and the start of military campaigns and farming seasons. Caesar offered a bull for sacrifice; Spurinna inspected its entrails, communed with the gods, who showed him that the sacrificed bull lacked a heart, a metaphor for the pool of blood ahead.

Therefore, the diviner went up to Caesar, hit his staff on the ground, and warned, “Roman General, I see danger in March! Beware of the Ides of March! Danger lurks, Caesar. Yes, the Ides of March, beware!” And he left.

But, Caesar, engrossed in statecraft, never remembered the warning until the day the siegecraft of his enemies subdued him at the Senate, and he fell to their swordcraft, as he was stabbed 23 times by his fellow senators, crying, “Et tu, Brute,” at the final stab. Ironically, the assassination that was meant to save the Roman Republic from Caesar’s dictatorship led to its end, giving rise to the Roman Empire.

Just like Caesar, two Nigerian politicians, Chief Dele Momodu and Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, in the March of 2026, forgot the Ides of March. They threw caution to the wind and engaged each other in a dogfight that members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers had outgrown. The bloodless power tussle between the forces of Alhaji Tajudeen Baruwa and Alhaji Musiliu Akinsanya aka MC Oluomo over control of the national headquarters of the NURTW in Abuja a few days ago shows that ‘Up National’ members are far more civil than many Nigerian political leaders.

If we share the same parentage, both Momodu and Fani-Kayode, at 65, should pick pieces of meat ahead of me at the family table. Ẹ̀gbọ́n Momodu should pick meat before ẹ̀gbọ́n Fani-Kayode because he arrived in the world five months before FFK. By reason of age, both should talk before me in family gatherings. And, I should wash the plates and pots if the three of us had a family cookout, and there was no Reno Omokri, who I’m older than, around. But when old men fight dirty and disrobe themselves in the marketplace, society allows their younger brother to separate them, exorcise the March Madness and call a spade by its proper name.

I knew FFK between 2009 and 2010 when he eyed the governorship of Osun State on the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party. In a field brimming with Ife-born political heavyweights such as Senator Iyiola Omisore, former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Chief Niyi Owolade; former Nigerian Ambassador to Cuba, Senator Segun Bamigbetan-Baju; former Commissioner for Education, Prof Muib Opeloye, etc, the young Fani-Kayode stood little chance in emerging the PDP candidate, despite the ‘it is our turn’ clamour by Ife. Femi Fani-Kayode aspired and failed.

Like FFK, Momodu, in 2011, ran for the nation’s presidency on the platform of the National Conscience Party, losing in his ward, where he got just one vote, according to a Vanguard newspaper report. In the PDP presidential primaries, which he contested in 2022, Momodu, who bought the PDP presidential primary form for N50 million, lamented the monetisation of Nigeria’s electoral process. He magnanimously donated copies of his magazine, Ovation, at the PDP primaries. But, for his troubles, Momodu got the type of fat zero mischievous teachers draw in the books of dullard students. PUNCH newspaper reported that no delegate voted for Momodu.

When glitz and glam fuel political aspiration, and public service becomes trackless like a snake crawling on a mountain, prefixes such as ‘former governorship aspirant’ and ‘former presidential candidate’ become mere tickets to the corridors of power.

Though both Fani-Kayode and Momodu never won an election, both are streetwise. Both are grandmasters of Nigeria’s prebendal politics. They understand perfectly how the crooked Nigerian system works. They know the power of visibility, timing and positioning. They understand power and its laws. Both know that most Nigerian men and women of power are vulnerable, lonely and insecure creatures who need public validation to ease the guilt their conscience suffers from years of public mismanagement. The brains of Bob Dee and FFK calculate better than the best Casio calculators.

When FFK wants something from you, you cannot survive his pressure. During the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, FFK would daily bombard me with press statements. One day, after speaking with me a couple of times on various press statements, he called me yet again. So, I sighed and sounded sleepy. Quick-minded, FFK noticed the drop in the cadence of my voice and said something like this, “Tunde, I have spoken to you many times today, and on each occasion, your voice was different. How many voices do you have?” I smiled at the other end of the phone, and intoned silently to myself, “I go let you kill me with PDP stories, abi?”

For someone who started from scratch, Momodu’s life story resonates with the rags-to-riches tales of resilience and consistency among never-say-die Nigerians. For this, I choose Momodu’s plastic spoon over Fani-Kayode’s silver spoon. Momodu’s youthful life leaves a noticeable trail of labour and salary, while FFK’s life reflects connection and affluence. But that is where my admiration for Momodu stops. The Yoruba say ‘kò sí bí ọ̀bọ ṣe ṣorí, tí ìnàkí o ṣé…’, meaning that there are similarities in the features of the monkey and the gorilla.

‘Trouble dey sleep, yanga go wake am’ when Momodu, in a television interview, said the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Bola Tinubu, was a civilian image of former military dictator, General Sani Abacha, the rogue. An angry Fani-Kayode, who had just been named ambassador-designate to Germany by Tinubu, argued that comparing a democratic government to a military regime was a distortion of history. Thus, FFK threw down the gauntlet and flung his hat into the ring, but an unfazed Momodu laced his gloves and rolled on his side into the ring, barechested. No way, we die here today!

For calling Tinubu, Fani-Kayode’s current benefactor, a dictator, FFK opened the Book of Remembrance to Chapter 1, and recalled how Dele is ‘friend and brother’ bagged a Third Class degree in Yoruba, and how the late Chief MKO Abiola picked him up from the gutter, washed him, and employed him. Not done yet, Femi, the son of Remi, flipped the Book of Remembrance to Chapter 2, recollecting how unhinged, emotional and illogical his friend, Dele, could be, stressing that he (FFK) had been loyal to the President, unlike Bob Dee, whom he accused of being a back-biter, untrustworthy, and ungrateful individual.

FFK said, “Unlike Dele, I did not benefit from him (Tinubu) for close to 40 years, eat from his plate, collect handouts from him, stayed in his house, claim to be his brother and yet refuse to support him in achieving his dream of becoming president.” The former aviation minister went on to call his publisher friend a glutton, saying Momodu’s big size was evidence of his gluttony.

Momodu roared back. He grabbed the Book of Response, and read from Chapter 7, saying, “He (Femi Fani-Kayode) went to Cambridge University…but became an enfant terrible, fighting anyone and anything in sight. All supplications and intercessions by friends and family on his behalf have failed to cure his malady. And this is the man President Tinubu is about to unleash on Germany as an ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, for God’s sake.”

Bob Dee did not stop. He attacked Omokri, who was in the same boat with FFK over the issue. He said, “I was going to ignore these two, but later decided to respond to them just in case they thought they could bully me into silence and submission. No, they can’t. They both have no credibility whatsoever.

“Together, they have expressed the worst views ever about Bola Tinubu that they will never be able to erase in a million years, except the world finally comes to an end. The only reason I could adduce for Tinubu’s tolerance of both irritants is desperation and his inability to find better people to do the dirty jobs. The brains of these ones have been configured to say anything and delete immediately.

“I have never disparaged Tinubu in my life. I have never called him a murderer. I have never called him a drug baron or addict. I’m intelligent enough not to say what I have no proof of. Only morons talk without thinking. I thank God for a good upbringing. I do not fight like pigs. And I have a job and manage my modest income. I’m not seeking government appointments. I know how many times Femi and Reno have reached out to me, privately, either begging for publicity or apologising for attacking me publicly.”

But Omokri denied the claims of him reaching out to Momodu, challenging the Edo-born politician to make his claims public. He said the only time he reached out to Momodu was when he urged the opposition stalwart to carry blood thinners such as aspirin along with him because of sudden death associated with frequent flying. He maintained that the Tinubu administration had recorded giant strides in economic growth and security. “Based on the aforementioned statistics devoid of emotions, I put to you that your claims are alarmist and a misrepresentation of the true state of Nigeria and the health of our democracy,” Omokri said.

If you think the Momodu–FFK-Omokri fight is a contest between democracy and dictatorship, you are missing the point. No, it’s beyond such smokescreens. Neither is it a struggle between light and darkness, nor is it a tussle between good and evil. �
The fight among the estranged friends and the younger Omokri could be deconstructed through a layered prism. Sitting smugly at the heart of the fight is the degeneration of elite political communication, battle over access to power, struggle for relevance in political-media space, egocentrism, and the fleeting nature of loyalty.

While Momodu put the loyalty of Fani-Kayode and Omokri to the test of integrity, and found them both falling short, FFK’s recall of how close Momodu was to the late MKO Abiola, and how he (Momodu) later went back and associated with the family of the late dictator, Sani Abacha, after Abiola died, put a big question mark on the honour of Momodu. The pot knows when the kettle whispers.

In October 2025, a former Mayor of Blanco, Texas, Mike Arnold, labelled Omokri a “pathological, habitual liar’ and ‘social media influencer’ who misrepresents facts for political gains. Arnold, the founder of Arise Africa International, was formerly associated with Omokri, but broke up the friendship after enumerating instances of ‘constant, calculated lying’ by Nigeria’s ambassador-designate to Mexico.

Arnold accused Omokri of screaming ‘Christian genocide’ during the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, but turned around to call it a hoax under Tinubu, accusing Omokri of possessing the penchant to flip to the side that holds the fattest chequebook.

Omokri never responded to Arnold’s accusations, even as the former mayor accused the ambassador-designate of begging him to cease fire. Uhmm, Omokri, renowned for his caustic wit and quick fingers on the keypad, has never said ‘pim’ in response to Arnold. Does silence mean guilt? Abi, where has Omokri’s courage gone? Arnold said many other unprintable things about Omokri, but Omokri is my aburo, so I won’t drag him.

The fight of the Three Lions is not in the interest of Nigeria. All three men are public brands, not just political actors. So the quarrel is also a market contest over visibility. Momodu typifies elder-journalist candour; FFK typifies gladiatorial loyalty; Omokri typifies data-driven regime advocacy. FFK and Omokri write not just to wound Momodu, and vice versa, but each writes to reassure his own constituency that he is still indispensable.

The roforofo fight shows that proximity to power in Nigeria speaks the language of outrage, where defenders of incumbency no longer defend policy but often attack dissent as betrayal. It also exposes how fast media and social reaction change once policy debates become public discourse, with the way attention shifted from Tinubu’s alleged authoritarian tendencies to personal attacks.

None of Momodu, Fani-Kayode and Omokri was fighting for Nigeria. The three of them are fighting for power.

Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com

Facebook: @Tunde Odesola

X: @Tunde_Odesola

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Adeleke: Crime Cannot Dethrone Apetu And Enthrone Oluwo

Published

3 hours ago

May 15, 2026

Editor

Tunde Odesola

In April 2025, woe wore a wear of shame on the Apetu of Ipetumodu, Oba Joseph Olugbenga Oloyede, in faraway United States, when he was indicted in a multimillion-dollar fraud case. Before his arrest and indictment, Oloyede, like the tail of the squirrel, swished his royal horsetail as he ate some American banana. Enveloped in the sweetness of the ripe banana, Oloyede unknowingly stepped on the tail of a coiled cobra by the banana tree, tragically setting off the trigger.

Blind to crown, deaf to creed, dumb to pedigree – the American legal system – silent but watchful, snapped p-a-a-h, its jaws slamming shut on Oloyede’s neck in a brutal metallic bite. “Ikún n j’ọ̀gẹ̀dẹ̀, ikún rèdí, ikún o mọ̀ wípé ohun tó dùn ma ń pani”.

Fast-forward to August 26, 2025. Nigerian cyberspace convulsed with a screaming headline, “Osun monarch jailed four years in US for $4.2m COVID-19 fraud.” The report, published in The PUNCH, was shocking. It was shocking to those who mistake the inevitable for surprise, like the case of a foolish husband running helter-skelter for financial help to buy baby care products when his wife gave birth after a nine-month pregnancy. Anyone who had followed the story since April knew that the August sentencing was a punitive arrow hitting the bull’s eye. By then, the concrete mix of justice poured in April had simply solidified by August.

You need no ‘kalokalo’ prophets or roadside imams or ‘sakamanje’ babalawos to foresee the gathering storm about to sweep off the Apetu throne. In America, justice is cheetah-fast. In Nigeria, justice is snail-slow. Oloyede mistook America for Nigeria and ended up in the belly of justice.

What did Alayeluwa Oba Oloyede steal? Kinni kabiyesi gbe gaan? Oloyede looted COVID-19 emergency funds created for struggling businesses, conspiring with one other criminal, Edward Oluwasanmi, to submit fraudulent applications for loans which were made available through the US Small Business Association (SBA), under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. In April, the Igbakeji Orisa pleaded guilty to wire fraud and tax fraud charges linked to a pandemic relief scam, which siphoned over $4.2m stimulus funds. Colleagues and townspeople thought that the àkàrà the Ori Ade was eating his pap with was tucked under the leaves enwrapping the àkàrà. No one suspected that the king was using a sickle to reach high tree branches outside his arm’s length. Ohun ọwọ́ mí ò tó, mà á fi gọ̀ngọ̀n fà á.

Before his enthronement as the Apetumodu of Ipetumodu in 2019, Oloyede, a chartered accountant and tax consultant, had worked with First Bank and Lead Merchant Bank in Nigeria, and relocated to the US in the late 1990s. In the US, he served as an adjunct professor at Indiana Wesleyan University and the University of Phoenix. Then, one night, greed knocked on the door of his heart, entered and showed him COVID-19 emergency funds. As Joseph the Dreamer resisted Potiphar’s wife, Joseph Oloyede could not resist the pounded yam and egusi served by greed.

Subsequently, Judge Christopher Boyko of the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio sentenced him to four years and eight months in prison, ordering him to pay $4.4m as restitution and forfeit his Medina mansion on Foote Road, Ohio. After imprisonment, the 63-year-old Oloyede will serve three years of supervised release, which means he will not be able to travel outside the US while on supervised release. And, going by the tone of the current US immigration policy, Oloyede, a naturalised US citizen, is most likely to lose his American passport after serving his term.

READ MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION:Tinubu’s Men Cuddle Terrorists On Innocent Graves

On August 26, 2025, the day Oloyede received four sets of orange-coloured prison uniforms at the Federal Correctional Institution, Elkton in Lisbon, Ohio, alongside basic undergarments, footwear and bedding, I took to my Facebook account @Tunde Odesola, and predicted, “Expectedly, the Apetu of Ipetumodu, Oba Joseph Oloyede, would be dethroned. The Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrashidi Adewale Akanbi, should also be dethroned because what is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander. Oluwo is an ex-convict in the US. He was slammed with two lifetime bans – to never enter the US. Osun State Governor, Asiwaju Ademola Adeleke, over to you.”

On Monday, May 11, 2026, worried by what was suspected to be a tactical delay by the Osun State Government to keep the throne vacant till the return of Oloyede from prison, I called on two persons in Osun to put the issue in perspective. The first person I called was a respected friend and honourable son of Ipetumodu. The second person I called, a top government official, was also an esteemed friend, renowned for a large dose of wit and wisdom.

At the end of our separate discussions, I told both of my friends that I was going to take the Adeleke government to the cleaners in my column on Friday, May 15, 2026. The government official friend gave me reasons for the delay in announcing the dethronement of the Apetu, citing legal and communal bottlenecks, adding that efforts were afoot to declare the throne vacant. My son-of-the-soil friend thanked me for sounding him out on the issue and wished me well in my writing endeavours. I also called a colleague who is close to both the Apetu and the community. So, the die was cast! I started to map out a mental graph of the article.

Alas, a few hours after I discussed with the three personalities, the Osun State Government announced the dethronement of Oloyede! My colleague sent the ‘breaking story’ to me. Ha! Is this a joke? I ran a quick check, and it was true. The dethronement is true. Was it painful that a game was snatched from my jaws? No. Was I happy? Yes. I was happy that the Adeleke government did the right thing, though late. Going by the threats by many indigenes of Ipetumodu, who have vowed not to vote for Adeleke in the governorship election coming up in three months, one is tempted to believe that the belated dethronement was a political stroke to gain the votes of Ipetumodu people. On the other hand, however, it took courage on the part of Adeleke to smash the calabash of a friend’s royal house, risking political antagonism three months before a historic election.

In the spirit of equity and fairness, a Yoruba translated proverb says, “The chieftaincy title that is due to the Iwo community will also be due to Ede.” On this note, I humbly call on Governor Adeleke to revisit the criminal cases of the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrosheed Adewale Akanbi, in the same United States of America, where he was jailed and deported. When the Englishman, in his intelligence, looked at the cases of Apetu and Oluwo and said, “What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander,” the Yoruba man, in his wisdom, responded, “Kò sí bí ọ̀bọ ṣe ṣe orí, tí ìnàkí ò ṣe.”

Running a banner headline, “Royal Exclusive: Harry and conman Nigerian king (Oluwo) twice deported from US,” British tabloid, The Mail on Sunday, in its May 19, 2024 edition, splashed the picture of the Oluwo of Iwo and Prince Harry on its cover, calling Akanbi a criminal, who wangled his way from being a fraudster to the royal stool of Iwo.

The headline and story of The Mail on Sunday were less acidic than that of The SUN, another British tabloid, which screamed, “Dodgy Royal: Nigerian king (Oluwo) who Harry called his ‘in-law’ is CONMAN jailed and deported after trying to cash stolen £247k cheque,” with the rider, “The Funky King was jailed 15 months in 1998.”

Reporting a three-day visit of the 39-year-old Harry and his 42-year-old wife, Meghan, to Nigeria, THE SUN reveals Akanbi had been deported twice from the US and banned twice for life from entering the US.

THE SUN story reads, “But the Nigerian royal (Oluwo) is a convicted fraudster who was twice kicked out of America. He was allegedly first arrested in Boston in 1998 after he tried to cash a stolen cheque for £247,000 from the aviation company Boeing.

“Akanbi posed as a successful businessman called Joseph Pigott but cops were alerted by a suspicious bank teller at BankBoston. The conman (Oluwo) was also charged with forging a cheque for £59,000 using the name Thomas Eyring. He was also reportedly jailed for 15 months and deported to Nigeria in April 1999.

“His £1,500 fine was waived ‘because of an inability to pay’. Despite being banned from re-entering the US, he was then said to have been caught attempting to cross the border in March 2011. Akanbi was with his then-wife Rakiya Saidu, and young son and claimed they were going to New York to shop. Facing the prospect of a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and a £197,000 fine, Akanbi pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to time served, deported and banned from the US for life a second time.”

Anyone who believes Oluwo has a grain of integrity can get these stories by simply googling the headlines. Akanbi had kept mute despite my challenging him repeatedly to go to court to prove his integrity. I am not alone in calling the criminal Oluwo out; some of his royal colleagues had dragged him before courts on account of his fraudulent activities. In December 2016, the Oluwo of Iwo Oke, Oba Kadiri Adeoye, had dragged him before an Osogbo magistrate’s court, accusing him of forgery. In a 33-paragraph affidavit, Oba Adeoye deposed that Akanbi was unfit for the esteemed position of king.

Akanbi’s refusal to show up in court infuriated Magistrate Olusola Aluko, who issued a bench warrant and said, “I am baffled that the Commissioner of Police has not done his duty. I am also surprised by his claim that he was unaware of the bench warrant. This must be the joke of the century. I, therefore, order him (commissioner of police) to immediately arrest the respondent (Oluwo),” and bring him to court on January 6, 2017.

READ MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Aláàfin Ọ̀yọ́ Cuddling A Dead Empire (1)

Aluko’s order was sequel to another bench warrant made by an Iwo magistrate’s court headed by Mr I. Omisade, against Oba Akanbi, who sent one of his chiefs and a letter of apology to Aluko’s court on the following date of hearing, claiming he was indisposed.

Also, the Agbowu of Ogbaagba, Oba Dhikrullah Akinropo, had dragged Akanbi before another Osogbo magistrate’s court headed by Mr Olusegun Ayilara, alleging that the Oluwo was unfit for the position of king. This followed an alleged physical assault on the Agbowu by the Oluwo in 2020, but the Oluwo denied assaulting his colleague.

In June 2024, a leading anti-corruption and human rights group, Human and Environmental Development Agenda, called on Governor Adeleke to investigate Oluwo’s alleged criminal records, with a view to protecting the sanctity of the Iwo royal stool and the integrity of the Iwo community. A letter signed by HEDA’s chairman, Olanrewaju Suraj, said it behoved the state government to raise a special panel to investigate the criminal allegations against Akanbi.

In clear terms, HEDA said, “Traditional rulers are custodians of their people’s heritage and symbols of authority and respect. Traditional rulers must possess impeccable character and be above reproach.”

Oluwo’s continued stay on the throne has many far-reaching implications. One of them is the dangerous signals it sends to the younger generation. It queries the lesson our society teaches when standards shift according to influence. What morals are citizens expected to learn when the law dethrones the Apetu and cuddles the Oluwo, two monarchs whose conduct has been far from dignifying?

Young Nigerians already swim in the ocean of cynicism. They watch fraudsters become celebrities. They see convicted public officials receive traditional titles. They observe corrupt politicians welcomed into churches and mosques with front-row seats and thanksgiving ceremonies. They are confused by the invisible line separating heroes from villains. They are confused by felons who use religion as a tactic to gain public approval. The dethronement of Akanbi will elucidate and revalidate integrity over criminality in our society.

In the days of yore, the throne feared disgrace more than death itself. That was why once a king became an albatross upon the land, chiefs quietly delivered a covered calabash to him — a symbolic invitation to embrace honourable exit or death. Our forefathers understood a simple truth that seems lost on us today: a contaminated crown contaminates the kingdom. The spiritual effect of this is enormous. Only the deep can relate. Governor Adeleke, the Oluwo is a disgrace to the Omoluabi ethos of the Osun people. His calabash needs to be broken. Oluwo must go.

Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com

Facebook: @Tunde Odesola

X: @Tunde_Odesola

News

UNIBEN Initiates N100bn Trust Fund To Complement Govt Funding

Published

20 hours ago

May 14, 2026

Editor

The University of Benin has unveiled a N100 billion Trust Development Fund (TDF) aimed at serving as an alternative source of funding for the institution.

Speaking at the unveiling of the Fund’s web portal, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Edoba Omoregie, said the UNIBEN TDF was conceived to bridge infrastructure gaps in the institution.

According to Omoregie, he was inspired by a similar initiative undertaken by University of Oxford about 30 years ago.

He explained that upon his return to the university after seven years away, he was confronted with dilapidated infrastructure across the institution’s two campuses, a situation which, according to him, made it obvious that the university needed additional funding beyond government allocations and its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

The Vice-Chancellor said: “When I took office as Vice-Chancellor, I told myself that the first task was to visit the hostels. I went to all the hostels here in Ugbowo and also on the Ekehuan campus. I also visited some of the academic facilities and, for someone who had been away from the university for about seven years, I did not know the facilities had decayed so rapidly.

“I was deeply concerned. I also looked at the books of the university and saw that its finances were in a shambolic state. We could barely pay the electricity bill; the university was disconnected from the public power supply for three months. There was student unrest, and I was in Abuja at the time, watching from afar and weeping inwardly over what was happening to our university.”

He said he immediately began researching ways the university could access alternative sources of funding, while also taking steps to eliminate waste.

In his remarks, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, disclosed that the formal launch of the N100 billion fund would take place on July 4, 2026.

He said the Fund would pursue strategic partnerships and sustainable development models through grants, Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), Build-Own-Operate-and-Transfer (BOOT) frameworks, endowment structures, and global institutional collaborations.

“Through these initiatives, we envision the renewal and expansion of critical infrastructure, including ultra-modern sports facilities, students’ hostels, hotels, innovation hubs, and agro-industrial development projects,” he said.

News

Gun Battle In Oyo Forest As Police Disrupt ₦10m Ransom Collection Plot

Published

20 hours ago

May 14, 2026

Editor

There was a gun battle in a forest in Oyo State on Wednesday after operatives of the Nigeria Police Force disrupted an alleged ₦10 million ransom collection operation by a suspected kidnapping gang in Otefon Village Forest, Atiba Local Government Area.

The operation, carried out by the Oyo State Police Command in collaboration with the Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN), led to the arrest of one suspect while other members of the gang escaped with suspected gunshot injuries.

According to a statement issued by the Command, on Thursday, credible intelligence was received in the early hours of 13 May 2026 that suspected kidnappers had gathered in the forest to receive ransom for a victim they had abducted earlier.

Acting on the intelligence, the Commissioner of Police, Oyo State Command, CP Abimbola Ayodeji Olugbemiga, directed operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) in the Oyo/Iseyin axis, alongside local security operatives, to storm the area and intercept the suspects.

Preliminary investigation showed that the gang of about six armed men had, on 9 May 2026, invaded the residence of one Alhaji Bagudu in Ilowa Village, Atiba Local Government Area, and abducted him, demanding ₦10 million as ransom.

The police said operatives first ensured the safe release of the victim before advancing towards the suspected ransom collection point to apprehend the criminals.

However, upon sighting the advancing security team, the suspects opened fire, triggering a gun duel in the forest. The exchange forced the gang to flee into surrounding bushes with suspected gunshot wounds.

One of the suspects, identified as Mohammed Sanni, was arrested at the scene.

Items recovered include a motorcycle, a mobile phone, a pair of slippers and a cap, all of which are currently undergoing forensic examination.

The Command said the arrested suspect had already made useful confessional statements, while efforts were ongoing to track down other fleeing members of the gang.

Residents were urged to remain vigilant and report individuals with suspicious injuries or movements to the nearest police formation.

The Commissioner of Police commended the operatives and their collaborators for the successful operation and reaffirmed the Command’s commitment to sustained action against kidnapping and violent crimes across the state.

(GUARDIAN)