The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (F-SARS)

  • Police arrest U.S army personnel in Imo over fraud

    Operatives of the Federal Special Anti Robbery Squad (F-SARS), of the Police Command in Imo says it has arrested a member of the U.S. Army, Mr Garrick Michael, over alleged advance fee fraud.

    The Commissioner of police, Mr Dasuki Galadanchi, disclosed this on Wednesday in Owerri while presenting to Journalists the suspect, Michael, and other suspects involved in different crimes ranging from armed robbery, kidnapping and child trafficking.

    Galadanchi said Michael is an American citizen who specialised in defrauding women of their huge money under the pretext of securing American visa for them.

    He named victims of the suspect as Sylva Chineyenwa, Wuchi Peace and Duny Glory.

     

    Read Also:Police not involved, says IG 

     

    Michael told Our Reporter that he returned to Nigeria to visit his wife who resided in the country before he met his three alleged victims.

    He said his business deal with the women was still valid before his arrest.

    The commissioner also said that a  kidnapper who had been on the police blacklist, one Reginald Durunzenwata, was arrested on Aug. 4 and would soon be charged to court.

    He said the suspect was allegedly involved in the kidnap and murder of a businessman, Chidi Eburuaji, in Imo, who was kidnapped and murdered in July.

    Galadanchi said apart from kidnapping, the suspect also specialised in diverting petrol tankers.

  • Woman dies in Ogun following F- SARS raid – family 

    Palpably frightened and shocked nonagenarian, Madam Bintu Jinadu, of Lajiga family in Makun – Sagamu, Ogun State, has slumped and died following raid on her home by Operatives of the Federal Special Anti – Robbery Squad (F – SARS) from Abuja.

    This was the trigger of a protest by hundreds of women and men who marched to the Palace of the Ewusi of Makun, Sagamu, Oba Timothy Akinsanya, last Saturday, alleging that Bintu Jinadu died of shock shortly after Operatives of the F – SARS from Abuja stormed her home in a commando style, and whisked the son, Abdul Rahman Abdul Kabir, away on the order of a suspected land grabber.

    The nonagenarian was said to have slumped in shock after watching the brutal manner her son was whisked away a week and died days later.

    Two other men – Chief Idowu Sanya and Dauda Owolabi, were also taken away from the town along with Abdul – Rahman.

    Some of their placards read: “Amosun Save from landgrabbers, ” “We Say No to Land Grabbing and Sir Kay Oluwo”; “Killing a Ninety Year Old Mother is a Sacrilege”, “Land Grabbers are Terrorists. Save us Now.”

    The peaceful protest which took off from the Awolowo Market, Sagamu, terminated at the Palace of the Ewusi, Oba Akinsanya.

    Their leader, Jamiu Lajiga, who addressed reporters, declared that the “Makun – Sagamu people, are tired of the nefarious activities of land grabbers” within their territories.

    Jamiu alleged that “many of the notorious land grabbers evicted from Lagos State has, for long, relocated to the Remo towns and villages where they have been terrorizing us forcefully dispossess us  of our family lands.”

    He accused a suspected land grabber popularly referred to as Sir Kay Oluwo, of being responsible for their plights and subsequent death of the 90 years old woman.

    “He is a pain in the neck of the entire people of Makun Sagamu towns and villages,” he said.

    Addressing the crowd, Oba Timothy Akinsanya, sympathized with the victims of what he called “an abominable brutalization of innocent land owners by land grabbers.”

    The monarch urged the protesters to remain peaceful and return to their respective homes and works, while promising to take up the issue earnestly.

    Read Also: Police arraign woman for allegedly stealing 7-month-old baby 

     

  • Banks, others shut as Ijebu-Igbo cult violence escalates

    Two commercial banks, two micro – finance banks and major businesses in Ijebu – Igbo, Ogun State, which opened for businesses by 8am on Monday, hurriedly closed shops an hour or more later following an escalating rival cult violence in the town.

    The banks and other shops in the town had opened for the day for businesses but as gunshot continued to rent the air, panic – stricken residents deserted the streets to avoid being struck by bullets and banks and other business owners also shut down lest hoodlums cash in on the tense situation, to loot, a bank customer told The Nation.

    Already, six persons, including a bricklayer and whose name is yet to be verified, were said to have been gunned down and several others injured in a renewed gun war that erupted between suspected members of rival cult groups in Ijebu – Igbo, Ogun State.

    The gun battle which began around 5:30pm on Sunday at Oke – Sopen road leading to Station bus stop, spilled into Oke – Agbo area and Ojowo, with gunshot booming intermittently all through the night and escalated in the early hours of Monday.

    While four persons were said to have been shot dead and several others wounded during the clash on Sunday evening, two additional persons got killed in a pre – dawn reprisal attacks launched by one of the feuding cult groups.

    There was pandemonium. Residents and visitors scampered to safety in fear and it was learnt that some of the victims were caught in a cross – fire.

    A source in Ijebu – Igbo told The Nation that three persons, believed to be  members of the same family, were killed in front of their father’s house in Ojowo, another killed near the Amazing Graze Petroleum Station while two others were shot dead at Odobalogun – all in Ijebu – Igbo town.

    It was also learnt that a detachment of soldiers, Operatives of the Federal Special Anti – Robbery Squad (F-SARS), Anti – cult unit of the Ogun State Police Command, Anti – Riot Policemen and regular armed policemen deployed in their hundreds to the volatile town since yesterday evening, were sighted on Monday morning  labouring to restore order.

    The Nation gathered that violence erupted between two rival cult groups in Ijebu – Igbo, the Headquarters of the Ijebu North Local Government Area, around 5:10pm shortly after the end of two separate political meetings in the seedy town by an equally rival politicians in Ogun East ahead of the 2019 general elections.

    The Police Public Relations Officer in Ogun State, Abimbola Oyeyemi, who confirmed the cult clash, said the Area Commander, Ijebu Police Area Command, the Divisional Police Officers in Police formations in Ijebuland, Operatives of the Federal Special Anti – Robbery Squad (F-SARS), Anti – cult unit of the Ogun State Police Command, Anti – Riot Policemen and regular armed policemen have all been deployed to the area to restore order.

    Abimbola, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), added that the men had enforced normalcy and advised residents not to panic, assuring that the perpetrators of the violence would be arrested soon.

    Read Also: Breaking: Ijebu – Igbo boils as six die in cult violence

  • Fake F-SARS commander, officer arrested in Rivers

    Fake F-SARS commander, officer arrested in Rivers

    A fake Commander of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (F-SARS), Kenneth Obunwa, and a fake officer of F-SARS, Oluwagbenga Abe, have been arrested in Rivers State by the authentic operatives of Akin Fakorede-led F-SARS and they will soon appear in court.

    Obunwa, an indigene of Egi in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State and Abe, who hails from Ijero-Ekiti in Ekiti State, both married with children, were arrested Tuesday morning by operatives of F-SARS at Igwuruta near Port Harcourt in Ikwerre LGA of Rivers state.

    A landlord in Igwuruta, Mr. John Onwaduegbo, told our reporter Tuesday evening in Port Harcourt that Obunwa and Abe, who he said introduced themselves as operatives of F-SARS, came around 9 p.m. on Monday to the house of Pastor Moses Finan and held him (Finan) and his younger brother, Silas Lohsing, hostage for some hours and extorted money from them, brandishing a machete.

    Onwaduegbo insisted that he saw Obunwa with the machete, which Abe said he was always keeping in his Volkswagen Golf car, which was still at the headquarters of F-SARS in Port Harcourt, as at the time of filing this report.

    Obunwa and Abe, who claimed to be members of Kaduna-based Vigilante Group of Nigeria, while separately speaking with our reporter in Port Harcourt, stated that in the last six months, they had been involved in voluntary night security job in Igwuruta, claiming to be known by the area’s monarch and the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Igwuruta Divisional Police headquarters, having earlier arrested many armed robbers and other criminals in the area, who they claimed were handed over to the DPO.

    Rivers Commander of F-SARS, who is also a lawyer, while speaking on the arrest, disclosed that at 7 a.m. Tuesday, F-SARS received a distress call that Obunwa and Abe, who claimed to be operatives of F-SARS, accosted Pastor Finan and his younger brother and subjected them to thorough search in their compound at Igwuruta, with undisclosed sum of money extorted from them.

    Fakorede, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), who hails from Ekiti State, said: “The suspects impersonated as operatives of F-SARS and they have been doing it for a while. We quickly responded to the distress call, because the members of the public adequately utilised the distress lines that we gave. We traced the impersonators and we arrested them.

    “We have a lot of miscreants who are impersonating security agents, especially F-SARS, thereby harassing, intimidating and extorting money from innocent members of the public, who ought to be very vigilant.

    “I wish to admonish members of the public that whenever they find operatives of F-SARS extorting money or persons claiming to be from F-SARS, but involved in impersonation, they should please notify F-SARS through these numbers: 08054000001, 08057000002 and 08057000003, as well as Rivers State Police Command’s Control Room numbers: 08098880134 and 08032003514.”

    Rivers Commander of F-SARS also disclosed that the two suspects would be thoroughly investigated and they would soon appear in court, to serve as a deterrent to other criminal-minded persons.