Police Arrest Suspected Killers Of Retired Oyo Permanent Secretary

Four suspects,  Bello Olalekan, 30, Bisiriyu Olalekan, 32, Simeon Ojei, 38, and Femi Omisore,43, have been arrested by the police in connection with the murder of a retired Permanent Secretary in the Oyo State Civil Service, Elizabeth Olaniyan Gbenle.

The 68-year-old woman was murdered in her residence in the Apata area of Ibadan in November last year while her valuables, including cars, a power-generating set, a substantial amount of money and other valuables, were carted away.

Parading the suspects at the Police Command in Eleyele, Ibadan, on Wednesday, February 14, 2024, the State Commissioner of Police, Adebola Hamzat, said they were picked up at various locations within and outside the state.

One of the suspects is said to be living in the same neighbourhood as the deceased at the time the heinous crime was committed.

The suspect confessed that he had given a hint to other members of the gang.

"On 10th November, 2023 at about 003hrs, five suspected members of a notorious criminal gang that has been terrorizing members of the public at different locations within Ibadan metropolis invaded the house of one late Mrs Olaitan OmotolaGbenle, at Agbede Agbofiati Community, Apata, Ibadan," the CP stated.

 "The suspects who were reportedly armed with sophisticated firearms and other dangerous weapons attacked the Sixty- Eight (68) year old woman at her residence equally dispossessing her of huge sums of money, mobile phones, big generating set, laptops, and many other valuable items, all of which were carted away in her Toyota Camry Car and a Toyota Corolla cars. As if that was not enough, the suspects eventually murdered the deceased, leaving her in a pool of her own blood.

"In furtherance of the above and upon the receipt of the incident’s petition, the Command was swayed to immediately identify, track and apprehend all the perpetrators of the heinous crime and recover all the items carted away.

"Sequel to this, a team of forensic experts and detectives attached to the Command Monitoring Unit immediately swung into action through detailed intelligence gathering and purposeful investigations, the suspected leader of the armed robbery syndicate, one Bello Olalekan and two of his syndicate members identified as Bisiriyu Olalekan and Simeon Ojei were arrested at their various hideouts in connection with the crime.

"Upon interrogations, the suspects voluntarily confessed to the crime while the leader of the suspected criminal gang explained that the victim was murdered because he realized the deceased saw him during the armed robbery operation.

"In the same vein, further investigations led to the arrest of a criminal receiver, FEMI OMISORE ‘M’. The two (2) vehicles and a Fireman Generating Set, hitherto carted away from the deceased were later recovered as well. The investigation is still ongoing. Further developments will be communicated later.” CP Adebola said.

 While speaking with journalists, one of the suspects, Bello Olalekan said; “I was arrested because my friends and I robbed one woman in my area and the woman later died eventually. Myself and my friends were involved in a robbery and it led to the death of the woman, before the incident my friends actually contacted me to give them one person they could rob to raise money and I said I knew one woman in my area and when we got there, we tied her hands and legs to the chair and along the line the woman died. Five of us actually went for that operation but it was three of us that tied the woman up. I was given N200,000 after we sold the two cars we stole from the woman’s compound. We actually sold the car at the rate of N2.3m to Omisore in Lagos, this is my first time of doing this, I beg.” Olalekan said.

Exhibits recovered from the suspects include one Toyota Camry Car, One Toyota Corolla Car, and one fireman Generator.