I thought he’s a kidnapper – Ondo cop killer reveals
The suspected assassin of an Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP, on duty at a checkpoint along Ifon/Sobe Highway in the Ose council area of Ondo state, Godson Tender James, has said that he taught the officer was a kidnapper.
Godson Tender James, accused by the Ondo state police command of killing a senior police officer, Emmanuel Oyewole, was paraded by the state police command in Akure, the state capital.
He allegedly defrauded a businesswoman and in the process of escaping from the state killed the ASP.
READ ALSO: Suspected kidnapper dies while fleeing arrest at military checkpoint
The Police had, after the incident, said that the ASP was killed by a hit-and-run driver who was later apprehended by military men at Sobe, Edo state.
But during an interview, the suspect said that he was trying to escape suspected kidnappers, who he heard were operating along Owo-Ifon Highway.
He said: “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 am 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. Thinking the police cannot just shoot at me, I believed 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. Trailer drivers passing by told me kidnappers were coming and I drove off.
“The military uniform they claimed to have seen in my car was just a seat jacket.”
James said the late Oyewole was one of those who attacked him with a gun at Ori Ohin, near Ifon, in the Ose local government area of the state.
On the allegation of fraud, the suspect said 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 needed 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 naira 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, which 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 from me.
“If I pointed a gun at her, would she let me leave the market? Didn’t she see where I took 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 stopped seeing them after a while. That was when I encountered the policemen at a checkpoint.
“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.”
Odunlami said the suspect would be charged in court for the murder of a police officer.
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