Police quiz two officers over serial killer’s escape as lawmakers kick

Officials of the Oyo State Police Command are interrogating two its men from whose custody the prime suspect in the serial killings in the Akinyele Local Government Area of the state, Sunday Shodipe, escaped.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Olugbenga Fadeyi, said this on Monday. This was just as members of the Oyo State House of Assembly called on the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to order a thorough investigation into how the suspect escaped from police custody. The lawmakers spoke at a press briefing at the House of Assembly complex on Monday.

The PPRO said the command had intensified efforts to re-arrest the suspect, saying other suspects arrested alongside Shodipe were still in custody.

“Efforts have been intensified to arrest him. All other suspects are in custody. Those from whose care he escaped are being interrogated,” Fadeyi stated.

Although the PPRO did not state how many policemen were being quizzed over the suspect’s disappearance, the Commissioner of Police, Joe Enwonwu, later said two cops were undergoing orderly room trial over the escape.

The CP said this when the Chairman of the state council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Ademola Babalola, led the executive members to meet with him.

“We are disturbed with the news of the escape of Sunday Shodipe. That is why we have to come here. Police custody should be the safest place to keep a suspect,” Babalola said.

The lawmaker representing Ibadan North-West, who is also the Chairman, House Committee on Security and Strategy, Akeem Obadara, as well as the lawmaker representing the Ogbomoso North State Constituency, who is also the Chairman, House Committee on Women Affairs and Social Inclusion, Bimbo Oladeji, called on the IG to ensure that the suspect was re-arrested and those responsible for his escape punished.

Oladeji said, “I hereby call on the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to put Oyo State Commissioner Police, Joe Enwonwu, on his toes and ensure a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the suspicious escape.” It is an inversion of logic that a 19-year-old suspect escaped from the most secure place in the state, hence the call for thorough investigation.

“Placing a bounty on the head of Sunday Shodipe by the Oyo State Police Command will go a long way in ensuring that he is quickly re-arrested.”

Obadara said efforts should be redoubled to re-arrest the suspect, saying this would reassure the people that Shodipe was not released to cover some persons up. Shodipe, 19, had confessed to some killings when he was paraded by the police on July 17.

He was arraigned and the court ordered that he should be remanded in police custody till the next adjourned date. The prime suspect however escaped from the police custody on August 11 and two days after, another woman, identified as Funmilayo Oladejo, was killed in the area in the same manner as other victims.