Three murder suspects have been reported dead as some yet-to-be identified gunmen believed to be hijackers attacked a security team along the Osogbo-Ilesa Road.
A statement dated Wednesday, titled, ‘Osun State Command repels attack by suspected criminal gang to hijack arrested suspects,’ indicated that the hoodlums, numbering four, attacked the police team around Osunjela River, along Osogbo/Ilesa Road while repairing the vehicle with which they were conveying some murder suspects to Ilesa Correctional Centre following a mechanical fault.
The suspected hijackers reportedly abandoned their motorcycles and disappeared into the nearby bush with bullet wounds.
The statement E-signed by the Police Public Relations Officer, Osun State Command, SP Yemisi Opalola, read in parts, “Today (August 25), at about 3:30pm, an Osun Police tactical team, while taking some murder suspects to Ilesa Correctional Centre, after Osunjela River, along Osogbo/Ilesa Road, the conveyance vehicle developed mechanical fault. As the mechanics were working on the vehicle, four armed men emerged from Osunjela Road on a Bajaj motorcycle and attacked the Police team by firing sporadically in a bid to hijack suspects.
“However, with the superior fire-power of the Police team, the hoodlums abandoned their motorcycle, three locally made guns; one pump action, two cut to size barrel guns with 14 live cartridges. In the process, three murder suspects sustained several degrees of injuries and later died at Asubiaro Hospital in Osogbo and deposited in the same hospital morgue.
“The hoodlums fled into the bush with bullet wounds. Meanwhile, the police in collaboration with the local security outfits and the youths of the community are combing the bush for possible arrest of the fleeing suspects.
The Commissioner of Police, Olawale Olokode, urged members of the public, especially people of Osunjela community, to avail the Command with information about any person(s) with suspected bullet wounds.