Two suspected hoodlums have been apprehended in Ibadan during the weekend, with three guns in the custody.
The suspects, Ahmed Ibrahim, 58, and Saheed Makinde, 42, were arrested by men of the Oyo State Joint Anti-Crime Security Task Force Team codenamed Operation Burst around Secretariat Road, Agodi Ibadan.
The men of the security outfit nabbed the duo after series of unrest and spate of violence rocked the city during a Stop-and-Search operation in an unregistered Toyota Corolla CE car.
Two single barrel guns and a pump action were found hidden in the boot of the car as at the time of the arrest.
Giving a detail on the suspects, Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism Dr. Wasiu Olatubosun, who addressed journalists at the premises of Operation Burst Headquarters at Agodi, Ibadan, confirmed the firearms were found on the duo while on their way to an unknown location.
But a further investigation revealed that although the particulars of the car were genuine, one of the guns had an expired the license.
Upon request, the gun document shown to journalists revealed that the license was last renewed in 2017.
Speaking with journalists, one of the suspects, Ibrahim, stated he used the guns to protect the Mokola Divisional Police Headquarters from being razed by hoodlums.
He owns one of the guns and had a licence for it. But he did not know that men of the Oodu’a Peoples Congress (OPC) were in the team, securing the Mokola police station, had put other guns in the car.
The car owner, Saheed Makinde, also said he did not know that the guns were in the car otherwise he would have told the owners to remove them before driving the car upon request to drive him home to rest.
Olatubosun also showed a 24-year-old suspected burglar, Toheeb Akinbode, who allegedly burgled a shop at Oba Ogundipe Market, Agodi, Ibadan.
The suspect was said to have been arrested on Saturday morning, though he claimed that he was just wandering around.
The owner of the shop purportedly broken into, Deji Adefeso, said he operates Point of Sale (POS) machines and N380, 000 was stolen by burglars in his shop about three weeks ago, adding four men alleged came to burgle the shop but three escaped.
