Facts have emerged on how a 42-year old Daniel Bob Ibeaji, the prime suspect in the murder of popular Abuja businessman and owner of Firman generating sets, Chief Ignatus Odunukwe, was arrested and the Police officer that led the operation in a thick forest in the suburb of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja.
P.M.EXPRESS reports the super officer is SP Tijani Taofiq, who was then the officer in charge of Monitoring Unit, Zone 2 Onikan, Lagos. He was given 7 days to arrest the killers of Odunukwe by the AIG, Iliyasu Ahmed and he swung into action, moved to FCT with his team and tracked the prime suspect, Ibeaji, in Abuja within the mandate given while equally arresting seven other suspects in Lagos.
However, SP Tijani Taofiq, who is now the DPO Ewokoro Division in Ogun State, was redeployed by the AIG after he arrived Lagos with the high profile suspect, Ibeaji, under controversial circumstances and was asked to hand over to one SP Ubah Adams, who was ascribed the glory wrongly in the media. It was gathered that the arrest of the dreaded Ibeaji took a lot of Intelligence and professionalism as displayed by SP Tijani Taofiq in order to track Ibeaji who had 21 phone Sim cards, which he used to perpetuate his criminal acts. He was seen as invincible before SP Taofiq took over the investigation and demystified him.
SP Tijani Taofiq joined the Nigeria Police in 2000 after he graduated from the university where he studied Business Administration and holds a BSC and MBA. He had worked in different capacities in the Nigeria Police before he was appointed OC Monitoring at Zone 2 Command when he unmasked Ibeaji and his gang.
SP Taofiq was able to achieve the feat as a result of his intelligence, diligence and humility including mastering of the Police job which had enabled him to perform excellently. He has attended many operation missions both in Nigeria and abroad including peacekeeping in Easti-mor and Liberia in 2010 as regional commander. The arrest of Ibeaji exposed the activities of the dreaded gang that had caused bitterness and sorrow to many families as he was said to have made fortune through abduction and kidnapping of targets before he was eventually arrested by SP Taofiq.
Ibeaji gave a startling revelation to detectives on how he conspired with three others to snuff life out of Odunukwe at the Atican Beach Resort in Ajah area of Lagos State on December 1, 2019, and took possession of the deceased properties worth about N900m in FCT, Abuja.
His queer operation is going into a business transaction with his victims, fraudulently collect relevant documents with the intention to effect payment which will never see the light of the day. He moves into stage two by kidnapping unsuspecting victims subsequently kill them and take possession of their properties with delight while all such documents retrieve from deceased will be incorporated in his name as the new owner.
His mode of operation was strange when compared with that of Evans the kidnapper. His three accomplices: Arinze Igwe, 26; Solomon Cletus, 30; and Israel Obigaremu, 35, who were arrested alongside, also stated their roles in the dastardly act. Ibeaji, who claimed to have studied Medicine and Surgery in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, disclosed that the deceased was first hit with an axe on the head before he was injected with a lethal injection and strangled.
Trouble started after the deceased, who was into real estate development and gold mining, was approached by the prime suspect in respect of one of his buildings he displayed for sale in Abuja. The late Odunukwe left his Ikoyi, Lagos home on December 1, having informed his family that he was going to meet the supposed buyer but he never returned home. His body, which was cut into pieces, was recovered by operatives in Ogombo forest along Ajah Road, while his SUV was tracked to Atican Beach Resort.
It is expected that Police officers while carrying out official assignments such as unravelling high profile cases, should be encouraged in order to boost their morale and not the rather shabby disposition as was the case with SP Taofiq.
