Ogun-Lagos road How disguised ritualists, kidnappers hunt for passengers. Ritualists, kidnappers, robbers, and rapists have now developed a new technique to track down unwary travellers and turn them into victims as government and security personnel work to end insecurity in Ogun State and Nigeria generally. According to research by the DAILY POST, they now pose as bikers and professional cab drivers.
These fictitious business drivers are mostly among the Yorubas who are referred to as “Sl” in popular culture. Without using an identifiable parking lot, they pick up clients on the side of the road and transport them to their destinations.
The sl system is widely used on country’s main roadways. Some of these drivers use this tactic to avoid spending hours in line at authorized motor parks while waiting for passengers. The majority of travelers also dislike wasting valuable time waiting for other travelers to board their flights.
As they do not pay fees levied on their colleagues by transport union officials at motorparks, the sl drivers undercut their transit prices to recruit roadside passengers. It was learned that some of them earn more money than their coworkers at the parks. Roadside drivers are enjoyed by commuters on a tight budget, those in a rush, and those whose homes are far from the designated parks.
“I get into taxis beside the road. Instead of going to parks, where I would pay more and maybe waste time, I prefer this. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with that, a government employee named Mordiya Adeyemi told the Daily Post in Sango. According to research published today in the DAILY POST, some people have used this as cover to murder, rape, or loot their victims.
Ritualists, kidnappers, thieves, and even rapists increasingly pose as taxi drivers, tricycle riders, and okada riders to lure unsuspecting passengers into becoming their victims.
The wicked deed has reportedly grown quite concerning, particularly on the routes connecting Abeokuta, Sagamu, and Ogere, Ijebu-Ode, Ibadan, and Lagos, among other places.
“Those innocent travelers are going to be killed by the ritualists so they may perform lucrative rites. The passengers will be held captive by the kidnappers until they pay a ransom, while the rapists primarily target women in order to compel them to have sex with them and may even kill them.
“The trees around these highways are where these criminals hide out. Many of them even need charms to operate. As soon as you get in their automobiles, you pass out or become unconscious. Some use weapons to threaten their victims. We live in a very challenging period. Everyone has to start seeing things, a motorist on the Abeokuta-Iperu highway informed our reporter in an unnamed manner.
The driver, who was in his 60s, recounted how the transport union task team had detained a ritualist who “admitted he used to sell a human head at the sum of N50,000.” According to DAILY POST, the Ogun State police command recently alerted the public about the potential presence of an unnamed serial murderer who is rumored to be prowling the Remo axis of the State.
Abimbola Oyeyemi, a police public information officer in Ogun, claimed the serial murderer used to pose as an okada rider and choose his intended female victims as passengers.
Such victims would be “brought to a remote spot, raped and mercilessly killed in cold blood,” according to Oyeyemi.
This was claimed while security personnel were looking for the assassins of the late Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, beauty queen. Whether or if the Remo serial killers have been apprehended since August is unknown.
In Ogijo, Sagamu Local Government Area of Ogun State, the police detained a bike rider and another person in the same month who picked up a female passenger and forcibly transported her to a building where she was gang-raped by three young males.
Idowu Adebayo, a 21-year-old okada driver from Sango-Ota, was detained by the So-Safe Corps after reportedly kidnapping, trying to rape, and killing a female passenger in the community of Ayegbe.
Around 4 am on June 22, a tricycle driver had sexually assaulted a female passenger and taken her money. Rasaq Tahoeed, 22, had picked up the passenger at the well-known Pakoto bus station traveling to Iyana Coker in Ifo, but the rider changed her destination after threatening to murder her if she didn’t comply, according to authorities.
Additionally, a female passenger was allegedly kidnapped, raped, and held for N140,000 in ransom by a taxi driver named Tunde Bello along the Mowe axis of the route a few months ago. The victim was assaulted and battered after boarding Bello’s taxi at approximately five in the morning and being driven into a thicket along Ibadan road by the driver.
According to the police, who also said that the suspect acknowledged to the crime, “After raping her, he kept her prisoner and instructed her to phone her relatives. They provided the sum of N140,000 to him as ransom before he let her go.”
The police recently detained two ritualists who abducted Abdullahi Azeez, murdered him, and then utilized his body parts in a ritual to get money. On June 8, the 40-year-old victim allegedly left his Kobape home, but he never came back. Although it is unclear exactly how Friday Abinya Odeh (21) and Poso Idowu (20) abducted him, there are rumors that he was likely taken away while in transit.
According to information provided by our reporter, there are several instances of people going missing or being attacked after entering buses or automobiles along the side of the road.
“We have witnessed folks come to our parks and announce that a family member is missing. Some folks recently came to Kuto Motorpark to report the disappearance of a family member. When we questioned where he got into a cab, they responded beside the bridge. They were informed that was incorrect. The driver of those unregistered, untraceable cars is unknown, according to a representative of the Road Transport Employers Association.
Gov. Abiodun acts quickly
DAILY POST discovered a few weeks ago that a private vehicle had parked next to the Kuto bridge to pick up people heading in the direction of Siun and Sagamu. However, a few kilometers into the drive, the car took a diversion into the jungle, where the women on board were raped and stripped of all of their possessions.
When Governor Dapo Abiodun learned of the occurrence, he allegedly sent a directive to all state security officials to act quickly to prevent other incidences.
According to information obtained by our correspondent, Lanre Bankole, the commissioner of police for the state of Ogun, summoned representatives of the transportation industry and ordered them to close down any motor parks that had not been approved. He also ordered that no vehicles be allowed to pick up passengers.
Since then, union leaders have been cracking down on drivers waiting to pick up passengers on the road in coordination with security personnel, and all unlawful motor parks have been “dismantled.”
“Three weeks ago, a car loaded passengers alongside the Kuto bridge; six people, three ladies and three men, plus the driver, were in the taxi,” Comrade Olalekan Adebayo, Branch Chairman of Abeokuta South II, Ogun State Parks Management Board, stated in an interview with DAILY POST. The motorist took a diversion towards the route on the right that is immediately after Day Waterman.
“These men raped the women and took everything off of them. They expelled these women once they had satisfied their own desires. They told some government representatives their narrative, emphasizing that they boarded the cab under the Kuto bridge, after they were spotted by the road coming out of the jungle.
The governor phoned the police commissioner to ask him to put an end to these heinous kidnappings by imposter drivers throughout the whole state of Ogun. The CP also contacted representatives from the transport unions, and we began the enforcement by removing all unlawful parking lots. Security personnel from the State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps have attended a number of our sessions (TRACE).
We began on Monday, and since then, we have pleaded with the public to use the park to board cars for their various destinations. It’s secure. Because of the N100 or N200 gap, people shouldn’t go and squander their lives and resources. We have watched how these criminals robbed a man of N500,000. Can you affirm that the man has N500 to pay? Come and tell us at the park if you don’t have any money, and we’ll help you. We safeguard your valuables and have a manifest. If you leave something in our cars, you may come back to the park to get it later; if you just jumped into a car on the side of the road, that is not feasible.
Security personnel assault the task team by posing as passing motorists.
According to information obtained by DAILY POST, certain security agency employees in Ogun have taken jobs as roadside vendors to supplement their income.
Transport union representatives said that under the guise of police, these security personnel assault the task force established to quell the activities of roadside vendors.
I must state that security personnel have made it challenging for us to implement the law. Attacking our task force while acting as if they are above the law, they are the ones doing this.
We have instructed them to visit the parks if they require passengers, and we will do so. But they’ll always hang out along the road. Regarding this, action must be taken.
Oyeyemi, a police spokesperson, responds
The majority of recent cases, according to our reporter, Ogun police image maker, Oyeyemi, are not reported to the police.
Oyeyemi urged people of Ogun to use authorized parks rather than looking for free or inexpensive rides beside the road, but he also argued that the police back union leaders’ efforts to put an end to some roadside drivers’ unlawful behavior.
Oyeyemi emphasized that no officer has the right to assault the union task force while performing their jobs, and that the case will be looked into in regards to security officers who engage in commercial driving without reservations at authorized parks.
