OSOGBO — The Osun State Police Command has arrested six suspects, including four staff of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), over the vandalism and theft of a high-tension power line pole at Eko-Ende Junction in Ikirun, an act police say is linked to the prolonged darkness the town and its surrounding communities have endured for months.
The six suspects have been arrested but not yet convicted of any offence; the Commissioner of Police has ordered the case transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation, with charges to follow once that process concludes.
How the arrest happened
According to a statement issued Tuesday by the command’s Public Relations Officer, DSP Abiodun Ojelabi, on behalf of the Commissioner of Police, operatives attached to the Ikirun Division acted on credible intelligence received at about 6:00am and stormed the scene, where they found the suspects cutting the high-tension pole using a cutting machine powered by a generating plant.
Findings by ValidViewNetwork show the operation was swift: officers, led by the Divisional Police Officer, moved immediately on the tip and caught the group in the act rather than after the fact.
Who was arrested
Checks by ValidViewNetwork show the six suspects were identified as Onabamiji Emmanuel, 55; Bolaji Odusanya, 51; Alimi Akeem, 36; and Balogun Kehinde, 52, all connected to IBEDC, with Emmanuel, Odusanya and Akeem listed as staff of the company’s Ikirun office and Balogun identified as security personnel attached to the company.
The remaining two, Oyewo Hammed, 31, and Oladosu Hammed, 22, were identified as welders.
Police said a cutting machine, a generating plant and a welding machine, all allegedly used in the operation, were recovered from the group.
A syndicate blamed for months of darkness
The police statement described Ikirun and its environs as having suffered incessant vandalisation and theft of cables and other electrical assets over the past few months, leaving the town in what it called total darkness, and said the arrested group is suspected to be the syndicate responsible for that pattern.
The presence of IBEDC’s own staff and security personnel among those arrested raises pointed questions about how deeply the alleged theft ring may have been embedded within the very company meant to protect the town’s electricity infrastructure.
The command’s warning to the public
Commissioner of Police Ibrahim Zungura assured residents that the command remains resolute in protecting public infrastructure, with the statement warning individuals and groups involved in vandalism or theft of public assets to desist, and pledging continued deployment of intelligence and operational resources to detect and apprehend offenders.
The command also encouraged members of the public to keep supplying timely and credible information to support ongoing efforts to combat similar crimes across Osun State.
Our conclusion
When the people paid to protect a town’s power supply are the ones found dismantling it, the damage runs deeper than one darkened community.
It should trouble Ikirun residents, and IBEDC’s leadership even more, that four of the six suspects wore the company’s own badge.
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Vigilance against vandalism cannot stop at the perimeter fence; it has to start with who a utility company chooses to trust with access to the very infrastructure it claims to be losing to thieves.
