The suspects paraded by the SSS
The Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Security Service, otherwise referred to as SSS who incidentally are the countries major law enforcement agencies have advanced two different position on those responsible for the death of Olaitan Oyerinde, Principal Private Secretary, PSS to Edo state governor, Adams Oshiomhole.
Olaitan was murdered by gunmen on May 4, 2012 at his residence at No. 65, 2nd Ugbor Road, GRA, Benin City, Edo state during the build up to the recently conducted governorship election in the state.
While the police claimed to have in its custody, five assassins who executed the killing, the SSS on the other said it arrested six robbery suspects who allegedly stormed Olaitan’s house to rob him but ended up killing him.
The Inspector General of Police had on Wednesday, July 11 while addressing policemen at the zone 5 command headquarters of the force in Benin announced that the Police have in its custody, four persons who killed the PA to the governor.
The Suspect later became five after a close friend of the late PSS and Executive Director of the African Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Rev. David Ugolor, was last Friday arrested in Benin by the police investigating team from the Force CID in Abuja, after one of the earlier arrested suspect allegedly named him as the sponsor of the murder.
But the SSS came up with a different story when it paraded six suspects in its custody as the masterminds of Olaitan’s murder.
Parading the suspects in Abuja today, the Deputy Director, Press of the SSS, Marylyn Ogar, said that Olaitan was attacked following information that he was a powerful figure in government and was in possession of large sums of money at his residence. She said the suspects, who confessed to the crime, however said they were not hired assassins but armed robbers.
The suspects were identified by the SSS as Mohammed Ibrahim Abdullahi, Raymond Onajite Origbo, Chikezie Edeh, Saidu Yakubu (a.k.a Imam), Sani Abdullahi Abubakar and Hassan Bashiru.
According to Ogar, “Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde was murdered in cold blood by the trio of Mohammed Ibrahim Abdullahi, Raymond Onajite Origbo and Chikezie Edeh. The three other suspects, Saidu Yakubu (aka Imam), Sani Abdullahi Abubakar and Hassan Bashiru are habitual buyers of stolen items.”
Ogar’s claim was confirmed by the mastermind of the alleged robbery, Mohammed Ibrahim Abdullahi who said that careless statements made by Ali Ihiade, the security guard in late Olaitan’s house at various times about his principal’s position in government, attracted his attention and made him to hatch the robbery operation which resulted in Olaitan’s death.
“We took his gateman. We saw him lying down in the chair at the sitting room and his wife with baby also lying down in the sitting room. Immediately he saw us he ran into the bed and I fired a shot in the air asking him where he was going to. Ibrahim was outside by the bedroom window. When he heard the shot and saw him through the window, he fired three shots at him through the widow and killed him. Ibrahim is our gang leader. We went to rob, it was not in our minds to kill him”,one of the paraded suspects, Raymond Origbo disclosed.
According to the SSS, Mohammed Ibrahim Abdullahi, 46 year old security guard hails from Gombi local council area in Adamawa state, while Raymond Onajite Origbo, 26, an Urhobo by tribe from Delta state, had confessed to participating and receiving N6000 and a BlackBerry smart phone as his share from the items stolen from Olaitan’s house. Chikezie Edeh, 30, was said to be an indigene of Akpugo village in Nkanu local council area of Enugu state and also confessed to participating in the crime and receiving a mobile phone and an apple Ipad computer as his share from the operation which he sold at the rate of N10,000.
Ogar said that murder weapons comprising three guns, used during the robbery had all been recovered from the suspects who are all currently in custody and would be handed over to the police for criminal prosecution.
