Osun State Police Command, Thursday, confirmed death of four suspects in the attack on police van taking suspected robbers to Ilesa correctional centre, Wednesday afternoon.
The police explained that an attack by some hoodlums to prevent suspected robbers from being taken to the correctional centre after court had remanded them, was repelled by security operatives who engaged them in a shoot out.
A statement by the Osun Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Yemisi Opalola, confirmed that the incident happened around 3:30pm, Wednesday.
According to Opalola, the tactical team of the police were taking some murder suspects to Ilesa correctional centre when the conveyance vehicle developed mechanical fault after Osunjela river along Osogbo/Ilesa road.
She said, as the nearby Mechanics were working on the vehicle, four armed men emerged from Osunjela road on a Bajaj Motorcycle and attacked the police team by firing sporadically in a bid to hijack suspects.
“However, with the superior fire-power of the police team, the hoodlums abandoned their Motorcycle, three locally made guns; one pump action, two cut to size barrel guns with fourteen live cartridges.
“In the process, three murder suspects sustained several degrees of injuries and later died at Asubiaro hospital in Osogbo and deposited in the same hospital morgue. The hoodlums fled into the bush with bullet wounds,” she added.
Opalola states that the police while combing the forest on Thursday morning, recovered another dead body apparently among the fleeing suspects.
“The police in collaboration with the local security outfits and the youths of the community are combing the bush for possible arrest of the fleeing suspects.
“At the wee hour of Thursday, while combing the bush for possible arrest of the fleeing suspects, police recovered the dead body of one of the attackers in the bush with bullets wounds on his body.
“While searching his body, two live cartridges and a paper with incantation written in Yoruba Language with the names of the perpetrators were found in his pocket. His corpse has been evacuated and deposited in the morgue,” she added.
She said the Commissioner of Police, CP Olawale Olokode, had enjoined members of the public, especially people of Osunjela area to avail the command with information about any person with suspected bullet wound.
