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OPINION: History Tinubu Should Have Learnt

Published

2 months ago

March 24, 2026

By Suyi Ayodele

How a government that claims to have made huge savings from oil subsidy removal still goes about acquiring foreign loans, as if borrowing is going out of fashion beats sane imagination.

By January 22, 1962, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was a 10-year-old lad. His 73-year-old age claim gives that statistics. A child strapped on the mother’s back, our elders say, does not know that the journey is far. Tinubu, at age 10 in 1962, would not have been able to appreciate what the elders of that era did to save Nigeria from a second form of slavery.

But a child, who did not witness history, it is equally said, should at least witness the retelling of history. A history retold, the elders further submit, is greater than the history itself (Bí omodé ò bá bá ìtàn, ó máa bá àróbá; àróbá ni baba ìtàn).

Whatever Tinubu missed out in 1962, when the young independent Nigeria severed the military enslavement pact known in history as the Anglo-Nigerian Defence Pact of 1960, is contained in all our history books. Does the President read? Or do those around him read history so as to guide the President properly in his choices of international relations?

Sixty-four years after the Nigerian Government fully detached itself from eternal open slavery to the United Kingdom (UK), after securing independence from Great Britain on October 1, 1960, President Tinubu, willingly, last week, handed over Nigeria to its former colonial master.

From Wednesday through Friday, when he finally returned to Lagos, Tinubu, his wife and the close to 150 other entourage to the United Kingdom, were grinning from ear to ear in celebration of the “historic” moment. UK’s Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, while receiving Tinubu at the No 10 Downing Street, Westminster, London, said the visit was “historic” in that in the last 37 years, no Nigerian leader had paid such an official visit to the UK!

For a government that is desperate for a second term and needs every appearance of international recognition or endorsement, visiting the UK and dining with King Charles and Queen Camilla by President Tinubu, is a huge achievement. Tinubu’s Lagos lap boy, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, summed up the feelings of the camp, when he became so enthusiastic about the visit, and tweeted, to the embarrassment of his media handlers, that: “I received His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu on his arrival at the Fairmont Hotel in Windsor ahead of the state visit.”

Rather than the normal protocol of the host country receiving the visiting Head of State of another country, Tinubu’s boys were the same set of people who flew ahead of the President to receive him on the ‘official state visit’, and also flew back to line up like expectant primary school pupils to ‘receive’ the president when he returned to Lagos last Friday.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: Nasir Agbógungbórò el-Rufai

While the Tinubu camp has been busy celebrating the “historic” visit, they have not bothered to tell us at whose instance the ‘visit’ was arranged. How much did it cost Nigeria for the hired lobbyists to pull through the ‘State visit’? How much did it cost our purse in terms of estacode, logistics and other allowances to cater for the close to 150 delegates that ‘accompanied’ the President on this ‘visit’?

While we are at that, there is one troubling revelation that came from the visit. By the stroke of the pen, President Tinubu has signed off Nigeria as a new official colony of the UK. This is the summary of the two major agreements he signed while his ‘State visit’ lasted.

The UK, no doubt, is a master of international diplomacy. From the era of colonialism to post-colonialism and neo-colonialism, the UK has never left anyone in doubt that it would only deal whenever it is sure that its economy and the wellbeing of the UK citizens are secured, protected and guaranteed with solid agreements.

That was exactly what the UK achieved with Tinubu. The former colonial master proved that it would do anything to preserve its stranglehold on desperate nations headed by equally desperate leaders like Tinubu. So, when the UK saw the opportunity in the much-desired ‘State visit’ by Tinubu, the country recognised that the Nigerian leader needed, very badly, the UK endorsement. And it was willing to give it, but at a huge cost to Nigeria and Nigerians.

That was why the agreement to ease migrant returns to Nigeria was proposed and Tinubu willingly signed. The British, I bet, must have looked into our President’s dilating eyeballs to read his desperation and concluded that under such a psychological composition, Tinubu would sign anything under the earth. And, true to type, our President did not disappoint!

By that deal, Nigeria has agreed that the UK can easily remove people, who have no right to stay in the UK, and ship them to Nigeria! All that is required is for the UK Government to issue the UK Letter, an identification document detailing people without valid documents, and without the protocol of procuring any further travel documents, have them loaded to an aircraft en route to Nigeria!

The UK Home Office explained that by the deal, people who overstay their visas, foreign criminals and others regarded as failed asylum seekers, would be easily transported to Nigeria. The only ‘beautiful’ aspect of the deal is the principle of ‘structured return pathway’ embedded in it and the promised ‘Reintegration Support’ by the Tinubu administration. However, the snags in the two border on how to marry a ‘structured return pathway’ clause with the provision of UK Letters as stated above, and how a government that has not been able to handle, successfully, the integration of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria, will now give ‘integration support’ to the UK-based Nigerians with criminal records and others that will soon be shipped back to Nigeria! If the iconoclast, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, were to describe this, he would simply intone: government magic!

If Tinubu’s allies expect Nigerians to accept the claim that the UK ‘State visit’ was driven by altruistic motives, the £746M loan agreement he secured undermines that narrative. By the terms of the deal–reportedly aimed at revamping Tin Can and Apapa Ports-,it is easily evident that the primary objective of the arranged ‘visit’ was to obtain the loan, and in the process, secure recognition and endorsement the Tinubu administration desperately needed from the UK Government.

The British Broadcasting Service (BBC), in its report on the loan deal, anchored by Becky Morton, Political reporter, says: “A separate deal, worth £746m, will see two major ports in Lagos refurbished with the help of UK-backed loans. UK Export Finance (UKEF), the UK government’s export credit agency, has provided a guarantee to the banks loaning the funds under the condition at least 20% of the contracts are sourced from the UK. At least £236m of supplier contracts will be redirected to British firms, including £70m for British steel – the company’s largest ever export backed by UKEF. It comes as the UK sets out a new strategy to boost the domestic steel industry.”

The implications here are grave! What Tinubu signed off in the £746m loan deal is the future of Nigeria’s steel industry. While the UK is doing everything to protect its own steel industry by imposing almost 50 percent tariffs on imported steel, Nigeria is taking a loan worth £746m, with almost half of the borrowed sum retained by the lending country while Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited remains comatose! Conceived as Nigeria’s largest steel plant, designed to produce 1.3 million metric tonnes of steel annually in its first phase, and in spite of having reached 98 per cent completion in 1994, the expansive project has suffered from decades of mismanagement, corruption, and inaction which have all conspired to render it moribund.

In another report by the BBC titled: “UK sets target to boost steelmaking and cut imports”, written by Jemma Crew, Business reporter, it is stated that: “The government has set a higher target for the UK to make half of the steel it uses and has announced higher taxes on buying steel from overseas. Imported steel quotas will be lowered and anything brought in above that level will be subject to a new 50% tariff, the business department said. The UK steel industry, which has been calling on the government to shield it from cheaper steel made abroad, welcomed the measures.”

UK Business Secretary, Peter Kyle, who announced the measures in Port Talbot, in Wales, where steel maker Tata is building an electric arc furnace which will make steel by melting scrap metal, was quoted by the BBC to have denied that “the new tariffs were a protectionist measure that would push up prices for manufacturers who use foreign steel and their customers”, but said: “I’m announcing really ambitious targets for use of British steel in the British economy, from 30% to 50%. But also, I need to defend the sector from anti-competitive behaviour from elsewhere in the world.”

That is a nation that protects its own. Here in Nigeria, we have the multi-billion-dollar Ajaokuta Steel Mill, the Itakpe Iron and other steel mills across the country that are in various states of coma. Rather than seek their revival; rather than take conscious efforts at revamping them, President Tinubu travelled with close to 150 delegates to the UK to obtain a loan of £746m, with provisions that make half the facility retained in the economy of the lending country.

By the spirit of the loan agreement, UK banks and the UK steel industry will manage the loan, sell the UK steel and still provide the ‘technical expertise’ for the running of the two ports to be ‘revamped’! This is a deal that the Aso Rock Villa orchestra asks us to hail; this is the deal that the Tinubu hangers-on said had made the President the man to beat in negotiation!

Going by the way President Tinubu acts daily with impunity, he, unarguably, is the luckiest President to have ever ruled Nigeria. If he wins his second term bid by January next year, he may as well become the luckiest President to have ever ruined the country. The beauty of his rulership and ruination is that he gets away with anything, even blue murder!

I don’t know how superstitious the President is. But whatever is responsible for his stranglehold on Nigeria’s neck is worth his deification. When one’s deity stands by one through thick and thin, our elders say such should be venerated daily with generous libation. I recommend that the President holds on tightly to whoever pounds his yam for him and assures him that the soup needed to eat the delicacy will not be a problem.

Nigerians are not necessarily docile. But there is a peculiarity with the Tinubu Presidency. Everything Nigerians fought against while Tinubu was in the opposition, they have accommodated easily with the Lion of Lagos on the throne! What Nigerians defended with their blood 64 years ago (neo-colonialism), is what Tinubu signed last week in the UK without a whimper from any quarters!

From the removal of subsidy to the latest pain in the land, there are still a huge number of the citizenry who believe that Tinubu is God-sent. Even when the government lies and becomes even ashamed of its own tissue of lies, some Nigerians still go to the marketplace and the rooftops to defend the government!

On May 29, 2023, at his inauguration, Tinubu announced, extempore, that “subsidy is gone.” Many watchers of the nation’s economy argued that that was a reckless statement by the new President. They posited that such a thoughtless pronouncement would lead to economic crisis and the ripple effects on the masses would be unimaginable.

The government’s Hallelujah orchestra said otherwise. They argued, with every fibre of their being, that by removing the oil subsidy, the Tinubu government would make huge savings that would be deployed for use in other sectors of the nation’s economy. Almost three years after the projection of the ‘huge savings’ from subsidy removal, Nigeria still goes begging for loans from virtually all the countries of the world.

How much has the government saved from subsidy removal? Nobody knows because the government is not transparent enough to tell the people the ‘gains’ that have accrued from that policy. All we know is that at every opportunity, this administration goes cap in hand, soliciting loans and mortgaging the future of the country to the creditor countries.

How a government which inflicted pain on the people in the name of economic reforms would abandon its own steel industry in a state of coma but would take a loan from a foreign country to develop that country’s steel industry is unfathomable! What about the Foreign Reserves this government said it has increased? How do you have a rich Foreign Reserves and you still go about taking foreign loans? Is this country really a joke?

News

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)