BENIN CITY – Six serving chiefs of Edo Traditional Council were yesterday arrested by the Edo State Police Command over their role in the illegal sale of lands belonging to the Igbinosun Family.
Speaking on the arrests, the Police Command Public Relations Officer Deputy Superintendent Godfrey Erhabor told our correspondents that a crack team of detectives acting on a Petition lodged at the command by Mr Foster Igbinosun a representative of the Igbinosun Family had carried out a stake-out of the said lands for five days before apprehending the Chiefs red handed with two suspected buyers.
The arrested Chiefs are Jerry Obanor, Michael Eguakun, Kevin Osunde, Joseph Nohense, Sunday Idemudia and Walter Ibizugbe all representatives of Ikpokpan Community and senior serving chiefs of the Edo traditional council. Also arrested were Mr Moses Itede a Lagos businessman and Mr Johnbull Noghesere an auto parts dealer both of whom told our correspondents that they are as much victims as the Igbinosuns as they were misled to believe that the Ikpokpan Chiefs were the rightful owners of the land.
Commenting on the incident, Chief Alfred Nowamagbe spokesman for the council said that this was a betrayal of what the Council stands for as custodians of Edo Culture and tradition. When asked by our correspondents what the Council was doing to curb abuse of power by member chiefs he said that the Council would carry out an independent investigation of their own but added that considering the evidence already available the disgraced Chiefs would most likely be stripped of their chieftaincy titles and expelled from the council. He however expressed concern for the safety of the petitioner saying that he hoped the Police would provide adequate security for the complainant noting that fear of reprisal attacks was the main reason why most victims of such crimes do not report them.
