Date: 2016-09-16

A three-man robbery gang has attacked a professor in the Faculty of Education, University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Prof. Abdullahi Onimisi.

The men also attacked the don's wife and son, whose names had yet to be ascertained. The Commissioner of Police, Kwara State Police Command, Mr. Olusola Amore, on Thursday said the victims were inflicted with machete cuts, adding that the don received severe cuts and was admitted in an undisclosed hospital.

Amore, while parading the suspects at the command's headquarters in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, identified them as Onimisi's former driver, Opeyemi Esan; Benjamin Musa and Olusegun Omoyajowolo.

He added that Esan, who had been sacked by the don, came from Lagos after recruiting Musa and Omoyajowolo to attack the don and his family. Amore said, "The professor told us that he was attacked by the three men, who were armed with machetes, and that they carted away his valuables, including a Toyota Muzzle Camry.

"Acting on intelligence report, the command's Anti-Robbery Squad raided an identified black spot on Unity Road, Ilorin, arrested the suspects and recovered all the stolen items." Esan said the gang robbed Onimisi because he allegedly owed him one month's salary.

Meanwhile, the state command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps paraded a former territorial manager of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, Mr. Benedict Uwulekhue, along with 11 other suspects for alleged vandalism, criminal conspiracy and illegal sale of equipment of NITEL.

The Commandant, Kwara State Command, NSCDC, Mr. Pedro Ideba, said the suspects included three security men, adding that the security men had confessed to the crime. He added that some vandalised high-tension cables, transmitter and transformer belonging to NITEL were allegedly sold to two buyers in Ilorin.

The commandant said the buyers could not produce documents to authenticate ownership of the items. He added that it was during a search in one of the buyers' house that two industrial generators belonging to the government were also discovered.

He said, "NITEL still has some telecommunication equipment on its premises in Ilorin. The men stole from the equipment and offered N140,000 bribe to NSCDC personnel to stop criminal investigation into their alleged offences."

The 62-year-old former NITEL territorial manager claimed that he decided to move out the equipment from NITEL premises for safekeeping, but was forced to sell the equipment by prospective buyers.

The two buyers, Ugwuma Marcelius and Chukwudi Mba, said they bought the items from auction sale organised by the National Telecommunications Commission in April, and claimed that they had documents to prove that the equipment were bought during the auction.

They claimed to have bought the generators for N650,000 each, while the NITEL transmitter and high-tension cables were bought for N700,000.