Police confirm arrest of five suspects over lynching of innocent man

The police in Lagos State have confirmed the arrest of five suspects in the lynching of Olamide Omolegbe who was wrongly accused of stealing a cell phone.

PREMIUM TIMES exclusively reported how the 22-year-old was killed on Monday and his body thrown into the lagoon at Badore-Ajah by hoodlums led by a woman, Bolanle Muhammad, who had wrongly accused Mr Omolegbe of theft.

The phone was later found with the son of the woman who is presently at large.

The body of the deceased was recovered from the lagoon two days after and has been deposited in the mortuary for autopsy.

This newspaper also exposed how the police released Mrs Mohammed and decided to use her as a witness.

After our report, the police reversed its decision and detained her and four other suspects in Mr Omolegbe’s killing.

On Sunday, the police spokesperson in Lagos, Bala Elkana, in a statement released the names of the five suspects in the incident.

“On July 9 at about 11:30 a.m. Langbasa Police Station received a complaint that on July 8 at 8p.m., one Olamide Omolegbe, 22, of G.R.A, Abidjan was killed,” Mr Elkana stated.

“The deceased person was accused of stealing a phone by one Bolanle Muhammed in her soft drink shop at Badore, Ajah.

“The false alarm she raised led to the beating and killing of the victim by the suspects: Wasiu Wahab, Ramon Ibrahim, Junior Adebayo and Yusuf Adegbite.”

“The four persons actually beat up the boy and when he was dead, they threw him into the lagoon.

“His body was recovered by a team of detectives led by the Divisional Police Officer, SP Ada Okafor, on July 10 at Badore Jetty and deposited at Mainland Hospital Mortuary for autopsy.”

“Five suspects including the woman who raised the false alarm were arrested.”

“Wasiu Wahab who is the principal murder suspect and Yusuf Adegbite were arrested inside the lagoon where they hid themselves in order to evade arrest,” he said.

Mr Elkana said the police commissioner in the state, Zubairu Muazu, had ordered the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, to take over the investigation.