Police Arrest Alleged Serial Fraudster who Killed Officer in Ondo

Fidelis David in Akure

Police operatives at  the  Ondo State Police Command have arrested a 47-year-old man, Godson Tender James, for allegedly killing a police officer on Ifon-Benin road in Ose Local Government Area of the state.

However, James, who was paraded at the headquarters of the state Police Command in Akure, said he killed a “criminal” in self-defence, and not a police officer.

According to him,  the officer, ASP Emmanuel Oyewole, was one of those who attacked him with a gun at Ori Ohin near Ifon in Ose council area. In a viral video showing the corpse of the policeman on July 22, 2023, it was speculated that the officer, who was part of a team manning a checkpoint on the notorious Ifon-Benin road, was shot by one of the kidnappers operating in the area.

In a statement issued by the state Police Public Relations Officers (PPRO), Funmilayo Odunlami-Omisanya,  about 24 hours after the video went viral, the officer was killed by a hit-and-run driver who was said to have been apprehended by military men at Sobe, Edo State, about five-minute drive from Ifon.

Parading the suspect, Odunlami-Omisanya said the suspect was fleeing from policemen along the route who have been alerted of a crime he committed earlier in Akure, the state capital, before he killed the officer.

According to her, “A woman, Oshodi Mubowale, reported at the Police Scorpion office in Akure that on July 21, 2023, that a man with an unregistered Ford SUV came to her shop at No 1 Omolere shopping complex in Adesida market in Akure through Thomas Toyin, 48, and Omonigba Kehinde, 47, both traders in the same complex.

“The said man requested he needed a cash sum of N6 million but he was only able to get a cash sum of N4 million from her under the pretence that he will send the money back through bank transfer but failed to do so.

“However, the complainant later called him and kept giving excuses. She was able to trace him to De Javu Hotel at Alagbaka together with some of her relatives, but the said man found a way to escape in his own car. In the process, they had to pursue him with another vehicle but they later turned back after series of phone threats from the man.

“The policemen and military men at the checkpoints within the axis he took were alerted. In the process of trying to evade arrest, he intentionally ran over an Assistant Superintendent of Police attached to Ifon Division, ASP Emmanuel Oyewole, at Ori Ohin, with his vehicle, as the officer was confirmed dead in the hospital.

“He was later arrested by officers of the Fourth Brigade headquarter, Sobe in Edo State. The suspect Godson Tender James, 47, was handed over to the police with the sum of 1.515 million by the military.”

The victim who was allegedly defrauded,

Mrs. Mubowale, told journalists  that the suspect approached her at her POS point to request for N6 million.

She said: “I told him I don’t have up to N6 million. What I had was N3 million. But I could raise N4 million if I could talk to my friends. He collected N4.6 million from me and made a fake transfer to me. I’ve been trying to look for him. I’ve been calling him and he promised to send it. He presented himself as a soldier because there was a pistol and army uniform in his vehicle.

“I gave the money to my friend that she should take the transfer because I was rushing to the court on that fateful day. My friend told me he collected the money and pointed a pistol at her that she must get down from his  car as he (suspect) has done the transfer. The transfer the man did of five million naira was a fake as he promised to return the next day to get an additional one million naira. The money I gave him consisted of both new and mutilated notes.

Meanwhile, the suspect, Godson James, claimed that the only transaction he had with the woman was to exchange his mutilated notes with new notes from her.

“I was going from Lagos to Abuja and stopped over in Akure as I could not proceed because of my health. As a contractor, I don’t normally move with cash. I was with my money. I wanted to buy materials at the market and that was where I knew those women. I told them I need new notes. I was with some volume of money, 100 and 200 naira notes. They asked what I needed it for and I told them it’s for payment of workers on my site as people appreciate new notes rather than paying into their accounts.

“That was where they introduced me to this woman who first accused me of being either a policeman or a military man, and said she needed to see my money before giving me her own money. I gave her N3.6 million and she counted it with a profit margin of over 400 thousand naira as we have been bargaining a day before that. She collected it, went into her shop and returned with the new notes in a bag and I collected it.

“She came down from my car, gave me her number and I told her I have another friend who is also interested in having new notes. I told her he will send her the money and I will collect the new notes for him. That was when she gave me her account details. I gave one of those who introduced me to her some money and the other collected the power bank in my car, after which I left the place.

“The alert they are talking about is from my friend and not me. If I pointed a gun at her, would she let me leave the market? Didn’t she see where I drank coke in front of her shop? Why didn’t she alert everyone if I truly pointed a pistol at her?

“I gave her the address to my hotel. She came with some people and we all entered my vehicle where one of them took my drugs, my inhaler and my phone. That was when I started feeling unsafe and had to drive out as they followed me but I couldn’t see them after a while. As I was going, I started hearing different things about a kidnapper driving a black Tundra. I stopped at a checkpoint where they asked if I was the kidnapper they were looking for and I told them I’m not a kidnapper and I was left alone.

“All of a sudden, as I was going, I saw some people wearing police uniforms with one of them bending over on the road. As I tried to maneuver, I heard a gunshot hit my car from the front. Believing the police cannot just shoot at me, I believe they were robbers and maneuvered to come out at another location. That was when I hit one of them. I was trying to save my own life when I hit the person.

“When I packed, I saw that my radiator was affected by the gunshots. Some trailer drivers passing by told me that kidnappers were coming and I drove off. The military uniform they claimed to have seen in my car was just a seat jacket. I would have reported her and her people at a police station in Akure before leaving but I don’t know anywhere in the town. I was able to locate the hotel I lodged in with the help of Google maps,” the suspect claimed.