Police arrest runaway killer of Ogun fuel truck conductor

The police in Ogun State have arrested a man, Tunde Olatubosun, who fled across the borders to a neighbouring country after allegedly shooting dead a motorboy at a carwash centre in Abeokuta, the state capital.

The 49-year-old suspect had allegedly shot dead the motorboy identified as Razaq on April 29 at the centre along Sam Ewang Estate, claiming that the fuel tanker the boy was working with blocked his passage.

He thereafter maneuvered his Sienna car and fled the scene of the crime.

On the fateful day, the‎ tanker, with registration number TTD 456XA and bearing the inscription of oil service company, NIPCO, was parked opposite the carwash centre awaiting parking space at the centre.

The‎ driver of the vehicle was said to have taken a stroll within the vicinity when Mr. Olatunbosun approached the motorboy sitting inside the truck and in the course of an argument, shot him.

Parading the suspect on Monday at the police headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta, the state commissioner of police, Ahmed Ilya, said officers and men of the command immediately put officers and men on red alert to get the murderer arrested.

He added that the police uncovered the profile of the suspect less than four hours after the incident through “technical intelligence”.

The commissioner said the suspect had fled to Republic of Togo after the crime but was traced and lured back to Nigeria and arrested two days later.

Mr. Ilyasu said preliminary investigation by the police revealed that the suspect was a member of a notorious gang of bandits that had been snatching vehicles, kidnapping people and parading as military officers to dupe unsuspecting members of the public in Abeokuta and its environs.

He disclosed that exhibits recovered from the suspect included one Ava pump-action gun with serial number 15-0083, 43 live cartridges, two camouflage army trousers, one camouflage army knicker, one camouflage army jungle cap and seven pairs of different vehicle plate numbers.

In an interview with journalists, the suspect confessed to shooting the victim and fleeing the crime scene when it dawned on him that the shot was fatal.

He said that he had reacted in anger to the truck blocking his passage, adding that he had inadvertently shot the boy in the process of an argument between the two of them.