47-year old Godson Tender James, arrested for killing a police officer along Ifon-Benin road, has said he killed a criminal in self-defense, and not a police officer.
James, who was paraded at the headquarters of the Ondo state police command on Monday said the officer, ASP Emmanuel Oyewole, was one of those who attacked him with a gun at Ori Ohin, near Ifon, in Ose local government area of the state.
In a viral video showing the corpse of the policeman on the 22nd of July, 2023, it was speculated that the officer, who was part of a team manning a checkpoint along the notorious Ifon-Benin road, was shot by one the kidnappers operating in the area.
However, in a statement by the command’s PPRO about 24 hours after the video went viral, Funmilayo Odunlami-Omisanya said the officer was killed by a hit and run driver who was said to have been apprehended by military men at Sobe, Edo state, about five minutes drive from Ifon.
While parading the suspect at the police headquarters in the state on Monday, Odunlami-Omisanya said the suspect was fleeing from policemen along the route who have been alerted of a crime he committed earlier in Akure, the state capital, before he killed the officer.
According to the PPRO, a woman, “Oshodi Mubowale reported at Police Scorpion office Akure that on the 21 of July, 2023 unknown man (six) with an unregistered Ford Jeep came to her shop at No 1 Omolere shopping complex Adesida market Akure through One Thomas Toyin aged 48years and Omonigba Kehinde aged 47years both traders in the same complex.
“The said man requested he needed a cash sum of Six million naira (#6,000,000.00k) but he was only able to get a cash sum of Four Million Four hundred thousand naira (#4,400,000.00k) from her under the pretence that he will send the money back through bank transfer but failed to do so.
“However, the complainant later called him and he kept giving excuses. She was able to trace him to De Javu hotel Alagbaka together with some of her relatives but the said man found a way to escape in his own car. In the process they had to pursue him with another vehicle but they later turned back after series of phone threats from the man.
“The Policemen and Military men at the checkpoints within the axis he took were alerted. In the process of trying to evade arrest, he intentionally ran over an Assistant Superintendent of Police attached to Ifon Division, ASP Emmanuel Oyewole at Police Pin down, Ori Ohin, with his vehicle, the Officer was confirmed dead in the hospital.
“He was later arrested by Officers of the Fourth Brigade headquarter, sobe in Edo State. The suspect GODSON TENDER JAMES aged 47 was handed over to the police with the sum of 1.515 Million naira by the Military.”
The woman whom James was claimed to have defrauded, Mubowale Oshodi, explained to TheReports that the suspect approached her at her POS point to request for six million naira. In her explanation, she said: “I told him I don’t have up to six million naira. What I have is three million. But I can raise four million if I talk to my friends.
“He collected 4.6 million naira from me and made a fake transfer for me. I’ve been trying to look for him. I’ve been calling him and he promised to send it. He presented himself as a soldier because there was a pistol and army uniform in his vehicle.
“I gave the money to my friend that she should take the transfer because I was rushing to the court by then.
“My friend told me he collected the money and pointed a pistol at her that she must get little of the car as he has done the transfer. The transfer the man did was a fake transfer of five million naira as he promised to return the next day to get an additional one million naira. The money I gave him consisted of both new and mutilated notes.
“On the second day, I tried to locate this man and searched for him after reporting him at the Anti-scorpion squad. They agreed to help me track his number.
“One of my brothers told me to check different hotels if he will be at anyone. After searching so many hotels, we met him at Dejavu Hotel as he was about to check out. He said ‘madam sorry. I’ve stressed you a lot. Enter the vehicle and let me see my wife. When I get to my wife, we’d do the transfer for you. My wife will transfer 2.9 million and I’ll do the rest’.
“I told him to do the one he has in his account as I’m using ‘LAPO’ money to run my business. He said I shouldn’t worry and was taking my brother and me round Obaile before entering a place where he asked me who has been following us in my vehicle, saying he will ‘change it for me’ if the person doesn’t leave.
“Knowing that he has a gun in the vehicle, I had to tell my brother to leave the place he parked. He told me to get down from his vehicle as we waited for his wife but he ran inside the vehicle and drove off, hitting my vehicle to create space for his own vehicle.”
However, James claimed the only transaction he had with the woman was to exchange his mutilated notes with new notes from her.
According to him, “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 need 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 3.6 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 stopped seeing them after a while.
“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’m 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. Believing the police cannot just shoot at me, I believe 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.
“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-Omisanya, who promised that the police will find out what really transpired between James and Oshodi, said he will be charged to court for the murder of a police officer.
