While Afenifere spokesperson, Yinka Odumakin says the alleged killers of Funke Olakunrin, the daughter of the leader of Afenifere, Reuben Fasoranti ha
While Afenifere spokesperson, Yinka Odumakin says the alleged killers of Funke Olakunrin, the daughter of the leader of Afenifere, Reuben Fasoranti have been apprehended by the Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS), including the driver of the deceased, who had earlier been released from custody, the Ondo State police are countering the claim saying no arrest has been made.
According to PremiumTimes, the Police Public Relations Officer in Ondo State, Tee Leo-Ikoro, said no arrest had been made and that the news of the arrest of the suspects must be the work of purveyors of fake news. Ikoro later issued a statement denouncing the report and insisting that the police were still investigating.
Funke Olakurin was gruesomely murdered by suspected herdsmen in July last year at Kajola along Ore-Ijebu Ode expressway while on her way to Lagos after visiting her father in Akure, Ondo State. She was shot in her Toyota Landcruiser SUV and later died in spite of efforts to save her life.
Some other vehicles were also ambushed in the incident and several persons, including her driver, kidnapped, but were later rescued. Her murder happened at the height of kidnappings and gun attacks by herders in the south west region, a development that spurred the leaders of the region into action, leading to the creation of Amotekun as a regional security network.
However, a statement by Odumakin on Tuesday, further heightened the controversy as he urged journalists to ignore the denial of arrest statement by the police command. Afenifere had earlier accused the police of tardiness in the handling of the case.
“The regular Police in Ondo state has behaved so irresponsibly on the murder of Funke Olakunrin in the last 9 months. But for SARS that has now apprehended the suspected killers, we would have lost confidence in the organization.
“We were shocked that the regular police in Ondo released the car in which Olakunrin was killed to the family the day after the incident without any forensic. It was after Afenifere’s complaint to the police at the highest level that they came to take the car for forensic after seven days of people touching the car with no report to the family till date. They just asked them to come and take the car that they were done with it.
“They were not going to do any autopsy on her until we insisted one must be carried out. They never deemed it necessary to brief the family once in the last 9 months. But the SARS who arrested the suspected killers formally briefed Papa Fasoranti last Saturday showing the responsible face of the police. The 94-year-old Pa Fasoranti who has been having sleepless nights in the last nine months has resumed normal sleep since SARS briefed him on the arrest.
Responding Leo-Ikoro said the Afenifere spokesperson misunderstood the mission of the SARS personnel who visited the Afenifere leader. According to him, the visit of the SARS operative was to seek the permission of the Afenifere leader to allow his driver to come and identify some persons arrested to see if they were the suspects in question. There is no way they will make any arrest and the Commissioner of Police here will not know and there is no way we will make any arrest and the Inspector-General of Police will not know. We will be happy to make the arrest, but this one is not correct and there is nothing to hide.”
