TheCable

Eleven persons were burnt to death on Sunday in an accident which occurred on Soka bridge along the Benin-Ore expressway in Odigbo LGA of Ondo state.

Sikiru Alonge, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) commander, Ore unit, said the accident was caused by “one-way driving”.

He said the truck had a head-on collision with a passenger bus.

“The trailer passed through one way and, in the process, collided with the Marcopolo bus which was coming from Benin road,” Alonge said.

“The bus caught fire in the process.”

He said the incident caused traffic congestion along the route. 

“The fire has been extinguished, while the traffic is being controlled on the Benin/Lagos lane,” he added.

“Efforts are on top gear with other security agencies to remove crashed vehicles from the road.”

Alonge urged motorists to always obey all traffic rules to avert further tragedy.

AMOTEKUN ARRESTS 80 SUSPECTED CRIMINALS

In another development, the operatives of the Ondo Security Network Agency, codenamed Amotekun, have arrested 80 suspected criminals in the last three weeks.

Out of the suspects arrested, 36 were paraded before journalists at the headquarters of the corps in Akure over the weekend. 

Adetunji Adeleye, the state commander of Amotekun Corps, said among the suspects were four persons who allegedly invaded the farm of of a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain and destroyed cassava plantation worth N10 million.

“In the last three weeks, 80 suspected criminals were arrested. In the last one week, about 32 were taken to court for prosecution,” he said.

“Investigations are going on for most of these ones and some of them, at the end of the day, were found to be victims of circumstances. 

“Some of them go out without a means of identification at odd hours and are found where they are not supposed to be. Upon proper interrogation, they were released to go. Some were released on bail.”

He added that some of the suspects engaged in various criminal activities such as murder, contravening the anti-open grazing law, and armed robbery.

“Majority of these ones that we are parading today, having concluded the investigations, will be going to court early next week. This is what we have been able to put together since last three weeks,” Adeleye said. 

“A criminal is a criminal, regardless of where they come from. We don’t want to give colour to criminality, a criminal is a criminal.

“The criminals should better leave Ondo state; not only within the town, but within the forest. Some of these criminals were arrested right inside the forest.

“Again, the anti-open grazing law is in force in Ondo state where we discouraged the use of underaged persons for grazing, especially when they engage in destruction of farm products.

“Some of them engaged in very massive destruction. We arrested some of those that were engaged in the destruction of one of the principal officers of PDP that went viral, saying that his farm was destroyed.”

Adeleye also lamented the increasing cases of missing people in Akure.

“In the last two weeks, we observed increase in the rate of missing people within the town, and our discreet investigations revealed that most of these people board okadas that are not registered with the okada association,” he said.

“So, it becomes very difficult to identify them, and majority of the victims that managed to escape that we interrogated thereafter told us that the kidnappers put on hoods and helmets.”