The Ondo State Police Command has denied a story credited to the National Publicity Secretary of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, Mr Yinka Odumakin, that it has arrested the suspected killers of Mrs Funke Olakunrin, daughter of Afenifere leader, Pa Fasoranti.
Olakunrin, the daughter of the leader of the Afenifere, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, was shot dead by bandits on the Ore-Sagamu Expressway in July 2019.
Odumakin had revealed on Monday that four of the suspected killers had been arrested by the police. The Punch reported.
However, the Ondo State Police Command denied the claim in a statement, saying no one had been arrested in connection with Olakunrin’s death.
But Odumakin said in a statement on Tuesday that the SARS operatives themselves informed the Afenifere leader of the arrest on Saturday.
He urged the citizens to disregard the command’s statement on the matter and blamed it for its inability to unravel the killers of the woman nine months after.
Odumakin stated, “The regular police in Ondo State have behaved so irresponsibly on the murder of Mrs Funke Olakunrin in the last nine months and this breakthrough could never have been theirs.
“But for the SARS that has now apprehended the suspected killers, we would have lost confidence in the organisation.
“We were shocked that the regular police in Ondo released the car in which Mrs Olakunrin was killed to the family the day after the incident without any forensic (examination).
“It was after Afenifere’s complaint to the police at the highest level that they came to take the car for forensic (analysis) after seven days of people touching the car with no report to the family till date.
“They just asked the family to come and take the car that they were done with it. They were not going to do an autopsy on her until we insisted that one must be carried out. They never deemed it necessary to brief the family even once in the last nine months.
“But the SARS, who arrested the suspected killers, formally briefed Papa Fasoranti last Saturday, showing the responsible face of the police.
“The 94-year-old Pa Fasoranti, who had been having sleepless nights in the last nine months, has resumed normal sleep since the SARS briefed him on the arrest.
“The driver, who was at the wheel when Mrs Olakunrin was killed and went with the killers, was treated with kid gloves by the regular police in Ondo, but the SARS took him in yesterday (Monday) after he failed to report for days despite repeated invitations.”
Odumakin commended the SARS for the arrest of the alleged killers, adding, “We wait for a thorough investigation that will lead to diligent prosecution.”
