Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State has approved immediate suspension of the Baale of Shangisha in Magodo, Chief Yusuf Ogundare, for faking his kidnap, which allegedly took place barely eight days ago.
The governor’s action was sequel to the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Fatai Owoseni’s allegation yesterday, that the accused Baale had confessed during investigation that he faked his abduction with his brother, Mohammed Adams’ help. Ambode’s order that the suspect desist from parading himself as the Baale of the community was contained in a memo with reference number OLGAS.83/S./Vol.1 dated July 13, addressed to the Sole Administrator of Ikosi-Isheri Local Council Development Area, and signed by the state’s Commissioner for Local Government and Community Affairs, Teslim Folami. Speaking at a briefing at the State House, Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja, Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Adeniji Kazeem, stressed that the state government will not condone any act aimed at causing panic and ridicule the security apparatus in Lagos. According to him, “I can assure you that once the investigation is concluded and it clearly shows that they committed the crime; the full weight of the law will be used against the perpetrators.” Police’s investigation Earlier, Owoseni hinted that the Baale was not in Lagos because investigation revealed that he was driving in Ibadan, Oyo State, and left for Ilorin, Kwara State, and others. Owoseni, while parading the two suspects at the State House, Ikeja, said Ogundare was apprehended by men of the Rapid Response Squad, RRS, in Alausa area of the state on July 11 after he was dropped in a suspicious manner by a car, which immediately sped off. How Baale was ‘freed’ Giving details of how Ogundare was apprehended, Owoseni said: “On July 11 at about 10p.m., a team of RRS patrol officers, working around Alausa, saw a vehicle drop a male adult in a suspicious manner close to Shoprite. “The speed with which the car drove off attracted them to that spot. A quick enquiry revealed that it was the Baale that was allegedly kidnapped. ”Immediately after, while Ogundare was being debriefed, he sold a dummy that the kidnappers dropped him off. “However, unknown to him investigation had revealed that on July 5, the day he was allegedly kidnapped in Lagos, he was driving around in Ashi, Ibadan; then he went to Ilorin and Iwo; he was just frolicking. “Also, because of information that had got to security services that his younger brother and his wife were being questioned and were actually in custody because of some discrepancies that were noticed in the interaction they had with security agencies, and in furtherance of the synergy existing between the Police and Department of State Services, DSS, we jointly compared notes and discovered it was a false alarm.” It would be recalled that Adams had told security agencies that he was with the Baale at CMD Hotel when some people, who claimed they wanted to buy land, whisked them away and later dropped him. Faulting the claim, the Commissioner of Police said investigation revealed that he (Adams) was not at any time in the hotel with the Baale, but was only at the restaurant of the hotel, and after some minutes, he left. Again, the Baale’s wife actually drove the Venza car allegedly used to abduct the supposed victim into the hotel. ‘His goal was to embarrass Lagos Govt’ Owoseni added that after the suspects were confronted with the indisputable facts, they had no choice but to confess faking the kidnap. He narrated that immediately after Ogundare was allegedly kidnapped, Adams went to the community and called the town crier to order the whole community to close shops and that markets, an action aimed at inciting members of the community against Lagos State Government. Owoseni said the objective of the suspects was to falsely accuse the Oba of Shangisha as the brain behind the kidnapping, which they indeed did, as a vengeance on his being installed the Oba instead of Ogundare. The Police boss added that they also embarrassed government and security agencies when they arrested him (Ogundare) as he falsely displayed the plate number of Oba of Shangisha on his car.
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