Ogun Finance Director’s Death: Police Suspect Insiders Work

The Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alamutu, has dropped a hint about assailants behind the murder of the Director of Finance in Governor Dapo Abiodun’s office, Mr. Taiwo Oyekanmi, to be in-house.

Osun Defender reported on Wednesday that Oyekanmi was gunned down while returning from the bank where he had taken a bullion van to withdraw some funds for the state.

Alamutu said the robbery and murder were premeditated, wondering how the armed robbers were fully armed with a sledgehammer to break into the bullion van.

According to him, the gunmen must have been well-informed by an insider that the deceased was heading for the bank to make withdrawals.

“From the information we have, it is obvious that it was premeditated. It was an in-house (thing). We have this feeling because, how did they know that they would need a hammer to break the receptacle?

“And they must have been lurking around the bank area, waiting for the man or he must have been trailed to that area and they must have had information that he was going to take a large amount of money from the bank. So, we are working on it.

“They (the armed robbers) came in a Toyota Corolla with a registration number yet unknown. They are about five, putting on hoods to conceal their identity. By God’s grace, we will do everything possible to ensure we get at them,” Alamutu disclosed.

The deceased Oyekanmi was said to have visited a branch of Fidelity Bank in Oke-Ilewo on Wednesday afternoon to withdraw a cash sum of N97.335m, and N15m from Sterling Bank, also in Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta.

On the Kuto flyover, the bullion van conveying the N112.335 million was reportedly accosted by the robbers and broken with a sledgehammer brought out of their Toyota vehicle.

Aside from Oyekanmi, the van had as its occupants, the driver identified as Lekan Akintoye and one other man named Peter Samson, but only Oyekanmi was identified and shot dead with an AK-47 rifle among the three.

The police boss confirmed that the bullion van was without any police escort at the time of the incident.

The attached mobile police officer, Inspector Rasheed Adegbite, who was supposed to be with the homemade bullion van was said to have travelled to Igbo-Ora in Oyo State on Tuesday without permission.

He has since been arrested for investigation, a viral police signal from the Ibara Police Divisional Headquarters said.