The prince was allegedly beaten to death.
Police authorities in Ondo State have arrested eight high chiefs of Igbokoda, the headquarters of Ilaje Local Government Area, for alleged complicity in the murder of a prince, Titiola Lebi.
The arrested chiefs are now being detained at the state Criminal Investigations Department, CID, in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
The deceased person’s father, Titiola Taiwo, who was at the state CID office with some of his family members, urged the police to fish out his son’s killers.
The chiefs were arrested following a petition sent to the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 11, Oshogbo, and the state Police Commissioner by counsel to the late prince’s family, Juwon Shemudara.
Mr. Shemudara, in the petition, said the deceased and three others were unjustly arrested and brutalized by some thugs on March 13 at the palace of Olu of Igbokoda.
Mr. Shemudara said that a detachment of police from Igbokoda division went to the palace to effect the release of the victims and took them to their station.
On getting there, the victims told the police that Prince Titiola Lebi (the deceased) was still being held in a cell within the palace, said Mr. Shemudara.
“The police immediately went back to the palace to rescue Titiola Lebi (the deceased) but before their arrival in the palace, the thugs had evacuated him. We started looking for him. Fortunately, his corpse was recovered at Igbokoda river the third day which was on the 16th of March, 2013 with his stomach and eyed smashed. There were bruises all over his body indicting that he was beaten and strangulated to death. This I believe prompted the youth to invade the monarch’s palace to ask for the killers of the innocent boy,” the counsel said.
Mr. Shemudara, in separate letters to the state governor, Olusegun Mimiko, and the state Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, accused the monarch of arbitrary arrest and molestation of innocent residents of the town since his coronation five months ago.
Police spokesman in the state, Femi Ogodo, confirmed the arrest of the chiefs.
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