How Omoyele Sowore’s brother, Jide was killed – Police

The Edo State Police Command has explained the circumstances under which Olajide Sowore, the younger brother of Sahara Reporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore, was killed on Saturday.

In a press briefing by the command’s spokesperson, Bello Kontongs, this evening, the police said the late Sowore ran into the kidnappers as they were attacking occupants of a commercial bus that broke down on the expressway.

Kontongs said: “The bus actually was coming from the South going towards Lagos. The bus belonged to a private transport company, and broke down around 2 am (on) Saturday, and the occupants looked for somewhere to sleep.

“That early hours in the morning the occupants came with the intention to pack their belongings from the bus, but unknown to them, the kidnappers had laid an ambush, and immediately they opened the bus, the kidnappers came out from the bush and started shooting at the bus in an attempt to create fears in them, but some of them tried to escape.

“Sowore was coming from Okada to Benin. He was just a victim. The kidnappers tried to stop him, but he refused to stop. The bullet hit his car and one of the bullets got him, and he died on the spot. He was confirmed (dead) by the doctors, and his corpse has been deposited at Igbinedion University Teaching Hospital.

“It has become necessary for us to brief the press to inform the general public that police is on top of the situation since the incident happened. Bush combing has started, the commissioner of police has directed the tactical team to put hands together with the Divisional police headquarters at Okada for the bush combing since yesterday.

“As I speak to you the local vigilantes in that area, the police tactical team from the state command and the Divisional police headquarters at Okada are all together in the bush right now combing the forests in an effort to arrest the assailants and rescue five other persons that are still with the kidnappers.

“That is the situation, and the commissioner of police is doing everything possible to ensure that they are arrested and those kidnapped are rescued,” Kotongs said.

He said there was no contact with the kidnappers yet, but added that he could not tell if the families of the kidnapped people had been contacted.

“The police is also trying to use tactical means in order to track the kidnapped victims. Some of the occupants of the bus who escaped and some we met hiding in the bush we brought to the police headquarters, and we have profiled them.  They are three in number,” he said