Famous Isikilu Wakili, acclaimed kidnap kingpin in Ayete, Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State, on Monday recounted how he was arrested over the weekend by some armed operatives of the Odua Peoples Congress who besieged his camp while lying down sick.
Wakili spoke during an interview with journalists in Ibadan on Monday, saying he had been sick and had gone for treatment in a town called Iparaku.
The frail-looking old man said he was indisposed at the time the local security operatives arrived at his camp, adding that he was alerted of their presence by some women who were with him.
He said, “On March 1, I travelled to a town called Iparaku in Benin Republic. There, I went to hospital because I was not feeling fine. I came back on March 5. Two days later, I was in my hut where I was lying down because of my ill health when I heard some women shouting that OPC members were coming and they were armed. I told them to run away but I was unable to run because I was sick.
“Two men came and dragged me out hauled me in their vehicle naked. They moved me to the police station. I fainted several times before we got to Igbo Ora Police Station. On getting there, they drove us to the State Criminal Investigation Department.”
Asked about his involvement in kidnapping and other crimes in Ibarapa land, he said, “I don’t know anything about kidnapping. If there is anybody who has evidence against me such a person should come out. Go to Ibarapa; I don’t have criminal record.
“I have spent over 20years in the area, I never had criminal record. If you are talking about cows, I have many cows and they sometimes stray into farmlands in the community but as for kidnapping, I don’t know anything about it. My children are at home; let them interrogate my children, they will tell you that I don’t have such record.
“For the past 30 years, none of my children was involved in crime. I can be investigated anywhere. I don’t know anything about kidnapping. Sometimes last year, two of my children were kidnapped and I paid millions of naira as ransom to bail them out. After taking me away, a woman named Tande was killed.”
The Commissioner of Police, Ngozi Onadeki, said, “During the unfortunate incident at Shasha, seven suspects were handed over to the police by the Nigerian Army. The seven suspects, after investigation, were charged to court. That is just the short story about the Shasha incident. The police carried out their own investigation and they were charged to court.
“I keep telling you to stop giving ethnic colouration to crime. The question is this, was there any crime committed? It is not a question of whether they were Yoruba and Ibos.
“At about 9am yesterday (Sunday) morning, the Area Commander and Divisional Police Officer, Ayete, called to inform us that three persons attacked Fulani community and one Wakili was arrested and taken to Igbo Ora Division. I directed the DPO and Area Commander to find out why they brought the three people to the state CID, it was during interrogation that we discovered that the three people who were arrested with other three were OPC members.
“They had been trying to arrest Wakili. They said they arrested Wakili and two others. But the issue is that as the OPC people left, they set the camp on fire and shot a woman on her stomach. Her intestine gushed out and the woman died, That was basically what happened yesterday (Sunday).
“My appeal is that we should all come together to fight crime. Give us credible information. Anybody who has complaint against Wakili, this is the best time to lodge complaints so that he can be investigated. Wakili is in the custody.”
