Lagos Police arrests notorious cult group Kingpin

A notorious cult member top on the list of police’s most wanted criminals, Oriyomi Balogun, popularly known as J-Prompt, was among suspected criminals paraded by the Lagos State Police Command yesterday.

Detectives at the command captured the cult leader few days ago after months on the trail of his gang that has been terrorizing residents of Shomolu, Pedro, Gbagada and Bariga axis of the state.

The 30-year-old Balogun, described by the Lagos State Police Commissioner, Fatai Owoseni, as the most wanted cult group leader in Lagos, who has killed many innocent persons was arrested by policemen from Alade Division assisted by a team of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) along Petit Street.

Owoseni told reporters the suspect has been involved in serial ‘hired killings’.

“He has been contracted by several gangs to settle private and business scores in recent times.”

The police commissioner, who paraded the suspect alongside 19 others arrested for various crimes, said ‘J-Prompt’ and his gang was responsible for setting ablaze a popular house in Shomolu, called ‘Mashafani House’, and killing many persons in the area in the last six months.

“Detectives have been working assiduously since the gang razed down Mashanfani House, where some ladies were also raped. J-Prompt is a star suspect because we have been looking for him and he has killed many people. He has been giving residents of Shomolu sleepless nights. He is an ex-convict and has been in and out of various prisons for rape cases, robbery, cultism and thuggery.

“He was arrested, again on August 24, 2016. He confessed to have been involved in multiple cases of murder. We hope that through him, other members of his gang would be arrested. His gang is responsible for turning Shomolu and Pedro into a theatre of war.”

Speaking with newsmen, the suspect admitted to the killing of about three persons within Shomolu and its environs.

He said: “I belong to Eye confraternity and we are always fighting with Aiye over who controls the area. We also fight when they snatch our members’ girlfriends. It was in the course of fighting that I killed two persons. Other members of my gang did the other killings.

“I know why the police are blaming me for all the atrocities committed because I am the leader of the gang. I know I would be held responsible for anything my members did, but I am not responsible for all the killings. I don’t regret anything because I know that everyday is for the thief and one day is for the owner.”

The command also arrested two sisters, Rita Ojobo and Mrs. Emmanuella Ossai, for allegedly being members of an extortionist gang that specializes in threatening medical doctors to part with money.

It was learnt that the gang, whose members are resident in Togo, usually contact Nigerian doctors on telephone demanding that they remit certain amount of money into account numbers or risk being kidnapped or murdered.

The sisters, who were arrested over the weekend by operatives of the State Rapid Response Squad (RRS) at Onitsha in Anambra State, were among the suspects paraded yesterday.

It was gathered that 30-year-old Ojobo was arrested at Diamond Bank in Onitsha after she went to withdraw some money paid into her account by one of the victims.

But the two sisters denied knowledge of the crime, insisting that their elder brother, Kenechi Ojobo, resident in Togo, is to blame for the crime, as he only used their account numbers for his nefarious acts.

They claimed their brother, a motorcycle spare-parts merchant in Togo, told them he usually gave relatives of the creditors the CFA (Francs) equivalent of the money paid in.

Ojobo said she was invited by her bank that there was an issue with her account, adding that she quickly rushed to the bank only to be arrested.

She said: “I do not know anything about threatening people. My brother was the one who called and told me that someone will pay in money to my account that he has given the person’s relation in Togo the equivalent in CFA. He said that he would collect the money when he comes around.

“I was in my house last Thursday when I received a call from the bank that someone has tampered with my account. I rushed there but was arrested and taken to Central Police Station in Onitsha. It was at the bank that they told me what happened. If I knew anything about such thing, would I not have escaped when the bank called me?”

Also, Ossai, who was with her one-month-old baby, said about four people have paid N220,000 into her account at different intervals on behalf of her brother.

She stated that she only knows he does local money transfer and that each time he came home, he collected his money to buy goods.

“I do not know anything about threatening people for money,“ she said.