The Ondo State Police Command has paraded the three suspects arrested in connection with the alleged killing of a naval officer, Sub. Lt. Samuel Akingbohun.

The suspects also disclosed how the naval officer was killed.

Akingbohun was allegedly killed by the suspects during an argument between the deceased and an okada rider in the Idoani Community in Ose Local Government Area of Ondo State, after which they were arrested by the police.

The suspects are Ayomide Sambo, Johnson Adeleke and Shagari Francis.

At the parade, the suspects confessed to using an iron rod angrily to strike the deceased officer’s head and scrotum during a violent altercation.

One of the suspects, Ayomide Sambo, 20, disclosed that the deceased officer who was attached to Navy Secondary School Imeri (a community beside Ido Ani) had physically assaulted his friend, Johnson Adeleke, by slapping and headbutted him during an altercation.

Sambo said, he and Johnson and Francis Shagari, were angry over what happened to their friend, and they pursued the late naval officer to a junction within the community, where they launched a vicious attack on him using an iron rod.

The suspect admitted that, following the dastardly act, they made an attempt to flee from the community but they were eventually apprehended.

He said, “We were on our way to collect a power bank when we encountered the naval officer. He was coming from the opposite direction, and the portion he was coming from was bad. We were both trying to take a good path when my friend used his shoulder to shove the officer.

“In annoyance, the naval officer slapped him and also gave him a headbutt. We started to beg the naval officer. After the naval officer had left, my friend said he was fake military personnel.

“It was then that we took a bike and traced him to the junction and challenged him. The naval officer and my friend started fighting. It was in the process that I picked up an iron rod and began to hit him all over his body. My friend also collected the iron rod and started hitting him.

“But the two of my friends are now denying it and saying that I was the only one that hit him with the iron rod. We have never seen the officer before. That was the first time we set our eyes on him. Even the Okada rider that carried us was saying that where my friend hit him with the iron rod was dangerous.

“We were arrested while trying to flee from the town. I was first arrested, while the other two were arrested the following day after I told the naval officers their whereabouts. The two of them are now saying that I was the only one that hit him.”

The other suspect, Johnson Adeleke, 20, who denied involvement in the beating and killing of the officer, said, “When I was on my way to remove my power bank, I mistakenly hit my elbow with the navy office. He slapped me and gave me a headbutt. At that moment, we didn’t know that he was a naval officer.

“After the fisticuffs, we took a bike and traced him. After catching up with him, I confronted him, but he refused to say anything. The friend of the naval officer used his elbow to hit Ayomide; it was at that point that Ayomide picked up the iron rod and started hitting him. I did not hit him at all; it was Ayomide that was hitting him.

“I was already out of Idoani in a bid to escape when my mother’s elder brother called me to report to the station.”

Parading the suspects at the police headquarters in Akure, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Olufumilayo Odunlami said the suspects will soon be charged in court for prosecution.

“Currently, three suspects are in custody, and in the course of interrogation, we realised that one Ayomide Sambo was one of those mobilised to the scene, and when he got there, he carried an iron rod, hit him (deceased) on his head and his testicles, and started stoning him.

“Later, he became unconscious, and he was rushed to the hospital in the town, where he was confirmed dead by the doctor,” the PPRO stated.