Police arrest serial killer, fake customs officers

The Ogun State Police Command says it has arrested a suspected serial killer and a leader of Aye Confraternity in Ijebu Ode on Monday.

The command said the suspect was identified simply as Olufemi, but popularly known as Femi Kuti.

The police also said they nabbed three fake customs officers ─ Brilliant Oruaro, Ajayi Jemibewon, and Farotimi Sunday ─ who were apprehended at the Ibafo end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

It was gathered that the men were arrested with 11 different cars they allegedly seized from their owners while masquerading as genuine customs officers.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikemefuna Okoye, said the arrest of Olufemi was a major breakthrough for the command.

He said the suspect had confessed that he alone had killed no fewer than six people, while members of his gang, who were on the run, had killed no fewer than 40 people.

Kuti, who he said was rusticated from the Tai Solarin College of Education, Omu, was arrested around 6.30pm at Ijebu Ode.

He said, “We got information from members of the public about him, and our men began gathering intelligence report on him. We succeeded on Monday during the Ojude Oba Festival.

“Femi Kuti and members of his gang were drinking and smoking skonk, a type of hard drugs. He is not only a cultist, but a serial killer. He said members of his gang and he had killed about 50 people.

“The members of his gang put up a resistance, and a gun battle ensued but eventually he was arrested after he was shot in the left leg.”

On the fake customs men, Okoye said they usually posed on the highway as genuine officers, wave down motorists and demand customs duty papers from them.

He added that the men had illegally impounded many cars, saying 11 of such were recovered from them.

The ring leader, Oruaro, who hails from Bayelsa State, was said to have an auto mart in Akure, Ondo State, where some of the vehicles were recovered.

Okoye said, “The suspects had confessed to the crime and we are calling on members of the public who had had their cars impounded by these fake officers, to come forward with genuine papers.”

The suspects said they were pushed by poverty.

Meanwhile, Okoye said a special squad had been moved to Ishefun, a border town between Lagos and Ogun states, in order to curtail the rising wave of crime in the area.