Matilda Omonaiye/
Forty-five enslaved students of an unregistered Quranic School in Ibadan have been set free by the police amid reports of sexual abuse and other inhumane treatments.
The arrests of the Ibadan-based Quranic School operator identified as 43-year-old Alfa Mojeed Oyelami was part of success stories from Oyo, Osun, and Ondo commands under the supervision of the Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) in charge of Zone XI, Mr Leye Oyebade.
Addressing a press conference at the police headquarters in Osogbo, Osun State, Oyebade said, “As police officers empowered to protect lives and property, it is our concern to prevent that which could be injurious to the sanctity of human life. It is on account of this that the Zonal Operation Puff Adder acting on credible intelligence, busted an unregistered Quranic School, at Kehinsi Compound, Ita Baale, Beyeruka area, Ibadan where Islamic students numbering over 45 comprising male, female, juvenile and adults were kept and subjected to the most excruciating, inhuman and degrading treatment.
“The frail and malnourished students who relived their harrowing experience in a squalid environment that could best be described as a pigsty were often locked up like prisoners in cell-rooms where they ate and defecated. They were poorly fed and were denied access to medical treatment. They were also frequently given corporal punishments. Intelligence gathered also revealed that some of the female students (aged between 8 and 19) were often subjected to all forms of sexual abuses including defilement.
“Consequent upon intelligence on the illicit activities of the school, operatives of the Zonal Operation Puff Adder swooped on it and rescued the victims who had been deprived of their personal liberty through unlawful detention. The operator of the said school, Alfa Mojeed Oyelami, 43, who claimed to be an Islamic Scholar, was also arrested with three others, Mohammed Gazali, 25, Mutiu Abdulakeem, 26, and Ajayi Segun, 26, suspected to be his accomplices. The distraught victims who have been subjected to emotional trauma and psychological torture are currently undergoing a post-traumatic examination. The juvenile among them were after liberation, taken to the Juvenile Welfare Home, Ibadan for rehabilitation.”
Oyebade commended his officers as he presented the scorecard from Oyo, Osun, and Ondo states. He told how his Technical Intelligence Response Unit smashed a gang of kidnappers led by a 32-year-old Jimoh Adamu Omotayo, how the police arrested suspected armed robbers who trailed a cashier to the church and gruesomely murdered him after robbing him of the sum of N500, 000 belonging to the church which the victim had gone to withdraw from a bank in Akure, Ondo State.
He said that “the relentless efforts of our men led to the arrest of some members of the criminal gang responsible for the dastardly act. The suspects are currently in custody and are assisting in our investigation to apprehend other members of the vicious gang. This is just one of the numerous achievements made by the Ondo State Police Command during the period under review”.
He also told how the Oyo State Command through the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), the Operation Puff Adder, the Anti-Kidnapping Squad and similar anti-crime outfits recorded unprecedented achievements between January and June this year.
He said, “One of such laudable achievements is the recovery of over 3,000 cartridges from an armed robbery suspect recently. The command also recovered several stolen vehicles, motorcycles, and other valuable property in addition to suspected cultists and ritualists nabbed. Some suspected members of the NURTW who caused a breach of public peace over motor parks in some parts of Ibadan, the Oyo state capital were promptly arrested. They have since been arraigned in court.
“Efforts of the Osun State Police Command in the fight against cultism yielded a positive result recently when its Operation Puff Adder operatives nabbed one Bello Oluwafemi (a.k.a. Blade), a suspected cultist who had been on a wanted list of the Police Command. The suspect, until his arrest on May 4, 2019, had been terrorizing higher institutions and their host communities. This also is one of the many achievements of the command recently.”
He added, “As we give an account of our activities today, we would like to say with all sense of modesty that the successes we celebrate today would not have been possible but for the support of the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, NPM, mni and his management team. Also, the achievements would not have been made without the support of the state governors who have been magnanimous by donating various fighting equipment such as patrol vehicles, body armour and other logistic support. But like the insatiable Oliver Twist, we ask for more to enable us to render better quality service to the good people of the three states.
“As we transit to the second half of the year, we are determined to fight crimes with unprecedented vigour, and uncommon patriotism. We are resolutely committed to providing an enabling environment conducive for peace, and for the political and socio-cultural development of the three states. We want to sound loudly a note of warning to the criminal underworld and other undesirable elements who make life unbearable for law abiding citizens to seek legitimate means of livelihood or risk arrest and prosecution. As for those who are already in our net, we shall arraign them in court as soon as investigations are concluded.”
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