The Ekiti State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Adeniran Akinwale, on Thursday, announced the arrest of six key suspects involved in the kidnapping and murder of Prof. Olorunfemi Olaofe, the former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti.
According to The PUNCH, the police revealed that the security guard, initially reported as a kidnapping victim alongside Prof. Olaofe, was actually complicit in the abduction.
Prof. Olaofe was taken from his residence at Federal Housing Estate, Ado Ekiti, on July 9, 2027. His body was subsequently discovered in a shallow grave along Airport Road in Afao Ekiti on July 31.
Police Public Relations Officer Sunday Abutu stated that the professor’s body has been exhumed and transferred to the morgue.
Akinwale described the incident, “An unknown gang of armed men allegedly stormed the residence of Prof. Femi Olaofe, kidnapped him alongside his security guard, one Abdul Opotu, and took them to an unknown destination with the professor’s Toyota Camry Car.”
Upon receiving the report, the police deployed Rapid Response Squad operatives, but the kidnappers had already escaped with the victims.
The operatives searched the forest between Ado Ekiti and Afao Ekiti and found Olaofe’s Camry car.
A discrete investigation and a careful operation led to the arrest of one Omowaye Ayodele at Bencom Guest House in Akure, Ondo State.
Ayodele confessed to the crime and implicated Kenneth, Amodu Gbenga, Nnamani Chukwuka, and Ojо, a.k.a. Ojo Ijan, as his accomplices. Ayodele also revealed that the security guard, Abdul Opotu, had orchestrated the kidnapping.
The police commissioner said, “Further investigation led to the arrest of Amodu Gbenga, who also confessed to the crime during investigation and further narrated how he used to supply food and water to the gang members in their hideouts located in a bush behind Government College, Off Ijan Road, Ado Ekiti.”
“The two suspects guided police operatives to their hideouts, but the gang had relocated with the victim to an unknown location.
“On July 30, the investigation led to the discovery of a shallow grave in a bush off Afao Road, behind the new Airport site in Ado Ekiti. An Order of Exhumation and Coroner Forms were obtained from the Magistrate Court, Ado Ekiti, and the Ministry of Environment was contacted. On July 31, the police, along with the Ministry of Environment and medical practitioners, exhumed the body, which was identified as Prof. Olaofe.
“The body has been deposited at Ekiti State Teaching Hospital morgue for autopsy.
“Efforts are ongoing to apprehend the remaining gang members, including the security guard who masterminded the crime. Six suspects are currently in custody and undergoing investigation,” Akinwale stated.