Armed Robber As Property Owner   

MATOGUN: A dismissed police officer and notorious armed robber, Mr. Olawale Ogundina, a native of Ibadan, Oyo State and father of six children, who was arrested by the police on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on 6 May 2010, is a big property owner in Matogun area of Ogun State. He has two buildings at Akaraba Popoola Street. He also has a hotel, cars and a bus. Recently, he bought an SUV.

•His hotel under construction: (Inset) Mr. Olawale Ogundina.

However, residents have appealed to the police not to let him off the hook in order not to terrorise the area again.

After his arrest, he allegedly made a confessional statement at the state CID Eleweran Police Command, Ogun State that he used the proceeds from his robbery operations to buy cars from Cotonou in Benin Republic, which he sells in Nigeria.

Ogundina named other members of the gang as Aliya, who is the leader; Agbons and Bernard, 52, from Delta State. He was also dismissed from the police force in 1984.

When they flashed their police identity cards, motorists would stop. Then they would show their real colour, dispossessing people of money and other valuables. But when the driver of a vehicle they tried to rob resisted, Ogundina and others tried to escape, Ogundina said. That was when the Police arrested them.

At the Ogun State Police Command headquarters, Eleweran, the police spokesperson, ASP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, confirmed the story, saying  “Ogundina has been charged to court and remanded in Ibara prison.”

Ogundina a.k.a Mopol, until his arrest was the chairman, Security Committee of the Amazing Grace Community Development Association, CDA, in Olambe-Matogun in Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State, South-West Nigeria.

According to a source: “The community realised rather late that Ogundina was a dismissed police officer. We discovered that when the residents apprehended a thief and handed him over to the police, within a short time the suspect would be released to return to the community to terrorise us.”

He appealed to the Inspector-General of Police that Ogundina should not be released because his return  would be too dangerous to the community. Another resident pleaded: “We are seriously appealing to the Inspector-General of Police to save our lives in Olambe-Matogun.”

– Reported by Wole   Adeboye & Dedeigbo Ayodeji.

Tags:  Akaraba Popoola, ASP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, CID, Eleweran, MATOGUN, Ogun State, Ogundina, Police Command