Alhaja Sherifat Adisa, who was the Chief Executive Officer of Subawah Petroleum, was killed in Ibarapa by unknown gunmen on Saturday, January 2, 2021. Two people were also killed at her fuel station.
Eleven people were on Wednesday arrested and paraded by the Oyo State Police Command in connection with the killing of a businesswoman in Idere, Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State.
Alongside the 11, some other suspects were arrested and paraded in connection with other crimes in the state.
Alhaja Sherifat Adisa, who was the Chief Executive Officer of Subawah Petroleum, was killed in Ibarapa by unknown gunmen on Saturday, January 2, 2021. Two people were also killed at her fuel station.
She was kidnapped around 7:30 pm at her office and her corpse was found around 11:00 pm, close to her station.
She was a member of Independent Petroleum Marketers (IPMAN) in the Idere area of Ibarapa.
Those who were arrested comprising Fulani men and two Yoruba men are Abubakar Idris, Shuibu Idi, Usman Saliu, Rabiu Usman, Umar Usman, Tiamiyu Isah, Rasak Ramon, Jare Mohammed, Umaru Amadu, Kabiru Adamu and Mohammed Abdullahi.
Two of the suspects – Tiamiyu Isah and Rasak Ramon – were private security guards who were absent from work on the day their employer, Adisa, was killed.
The two aged security guards claimed their absence from work on the same day was a coincidence.
They denied any knowledge of the abduction and killing of their boss.
Also paraded were 13 armed robbers, a 72-year-old pastor of Cherubim and Seraphim Church, Oke-Aseyori, Iyana Church, Monatan, Ibadan, Mr. Jimoh Odunayo, who allegedly defiled a 13-year-old girl, Rasaq Aisha; and a 56-year-old lawyer, Remi-Oladiti, who allegedly defiled a 14-year-old girl, Fatima Souwara, in Bodija, Ibadan.
The state police commissioner, Ngozi Onadeko, who paraded the suspects at the Eleyele headquarters of the Force in Ibadan on Wednesday, said some of the arrested suspects participated in the kidnap and killing of Oluwole Agboola, who was killed in the Akinyele Local Government Area and a local government chairman killed on Igangan/Ado-Awaye Road in the Oke-Ogun area of the state, Adeleke Jacob Olayiwola.
Regarding the killing of the businesswoman, Onadeko said, "The prime suspect, Jare Mohammed, inserted his SIM card in a Nokia phone belonging to the deceased, Alhaja Adisa Sherifat, which was taken away from her during the armed robbery operation that claimed her life."
She noted that eight armed robbery syndicates were also arrested in their hideout, in connection with a report of robbery at Ajanla junction, along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Following the killing of Adisa in the first week of January, IPMAN shut down all filling stations in the Ibarapa area of Oyo State.
The Ibadan depot of the association also threatened to shut down all filling stations in the state if the government failed to provide security for its members.
The chairman, Ibadan Depot, Alhaji Bukola Mutiu, in a statement issued in Ibarapa, at the time, said the closure of all filling stations in Ibarapa was a warning to the Oyo State government to urgently arrest the growing trend of killing and kidnapping of petroleum dealers in the state.
Describing the killing of Adisa as one too many, IPMAN warned that except the trend was curbed, all filling stations in the state would be shut down.
Mutiu said: “Killing and kidnapping have become so rampant as a series of cases have been coming up recently.
"On Saturday, one of us, Alhaja Sherifat Adisa, who was the owner of Subawah Petroleum, was kidnapped around 7:30 pm at her office and two people were killed in her station. Her corpse was found around 11:00 pm, close to her station.
“However, the IPMAN has decided to close down all petrol stations in Ibarapa till something is done by the government to protect them and if something is not done, the shutdown of all petrol stations will be extended to Oyo State as a whole.”