The police command in Oyo on Tuesday, March 9, released Dauda Kazeem, Awodele Adedigba, and Ramon Hassan, all of whom were members of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) who were earlier detained over the arrest of Iskilu Wakili.

The trio was released at the Iyaganku police station in the state.

Wakili: Faces of detained OPC members finally emerge as they leave police custody

The OPC members were Dauda Kazeem, Awodele Adedigba, and Ramon Hassan (Photo: The Nation)

The release of Kazeem, Adedigba, and Hassan was witnessed by the coordinator of the OPC in Oyo, Comrade Rotimi Oguntunde alongside Ademola Akeem, the special adviser to the state governor on culture and tourism.

During interrogation by officers of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Iyaganku, Ibadan, on Tuesday, March 9, Wakili said he has spent not less than 20 years in Ibarapa without being linked with any case of kidnapping until his arrest by members of the OPC.Meanwhile, Wakili had denied being involved in any form of crime all through his stay in the area.

The embattled herder said on the ill-fated day he was picked up by members of the OPC, one of the occupants of his house, Tande, was killed, admitting also that he has many cows which sometimes find their way into the farmlands of Ibarapa natives.

Wakili said:

“I am not a criminal, my children are not criminals. I don’t know anything about kidnapping or any crime.
"I have many cows and I know they stray into farms at times but I don’t have criminal records anywhere and this can be investigated. After they took me away from my home, a woman, Tande."

In fact, the northerner said that in 2020, he paid ransoms to abductors who kidnapped two of his children.