Ibadan – The Oyo State Police Command said it had raided a hideout of fraudsters and arrested a 43-year-old man, Ismaila Adesina with fake currencies and charms.
The Commissioner of Police, Muhammad Katsina told newsmen that Adesina was arrested at their Isase hideout in Ojoku in Ona-Ara Local Government Area of the state, saying the three other suspects were still on the run.
The suspect, Adesina, who spoke to newsmen after he was arrested, said he was an herbalist that inherited the act from his late father.
He said that his main job was defrauding people with his colleagues rather than engage in spiritual activities.
“I have been into this fraudulent act in the last five years. My wife left me with two children because I was poor. We do make N150, 000 to N200, 000 per business.
“Most of our clients are from Abuja and Ankpa in Kogi State.”
The commissioner of police told newsmen that the era of kidnapping and other criminal activities was over in the state.
He said that the command had launched “Operations Water Icing” to tackle and wipe out such activities in the state.
“I have launched some operations aimed at dominating, suffocating and forcing out criminals from the state.”
Katsina, who urged the principal suspect of the heinous crime to surrender himself and be pardoned, saying that he would definitely apprehend him as “the world is a global society’’.
He said that he had always preached to the criminals in the state to abandon, relocate or be caught.
Three cars, two Toyota Camry cars and a Nissan Almera, belonging to the suspects were recovered from their shrine-like hideout.
Also speaking, Chief Moses Taiwo, the Baale of Ojoku community told newsmen that it was a sad development in the history of the community and commended the police for tracking the culprit.
He said that the suspects bought the land in the community on the pretence that they were theatre practitioners.
He therefore urged the police to prosecute the culprit and pull down the entire hideout.
