An assassination suspect, Adeola Williams, popularly known as Ade Lawyer on Friday in Lagos State narrated how he killed four people for the immediate past chairman of the state branch of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Alhaji Rafiu Olorunwa.
Ade Lawyer told newsmen when he was paraded by the police that he had also killed for many other prominent people in Lagos State and that he had been working for the former NURTW chairman since his days as the union boss between 2008 and 2011.
The suspect also told newsmen that Olorunwa contracted him to kill the Idumota branch chairman of the union, Mr Kunle Polly because the former union leader accused Polly of denying him his dues as a former NURTW boss in the state.
The police in the state also on Friday paraded along with the suspect, the ex- NURTW boss, Olorunwa and some other suspected armed robbers and murderers before newsmen at the state command headquarters, Ikeja.
The state police boss, Imohimi Edgal, had, some few weeks ago, declared Ade Lawyer wanted in connection with the attack on the Idumota branch chairman of the NURTW on the 23 January 2018, where his personal assistant. Ganiu Ayinla was killed.
Edgal told newsmen on Friday that Olorunwa and Ade Lawyer were arrested following collaborative efforts of the personnel of the Federal Special Anti Robbery Squad, Adeniji Adele, Federal Special Anti Robbery Squad, Ikeja, the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team and other units from the Lagos State police command.
The police boss said that the wanted Ade Lawyer was arrested in Akure, Ondo State, where he had relocated to when it dawned on him that the police were on his trail, following his involvement in the attempted murder of Kunle Polly.
According to the Lagos police boss, Olorunwa was arrested based on Ade Lawyer’s confessions which were properly presented to the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris.
“Adeola Williams, AKA Ade Lawyer, confessed that his services were secured by a former chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers in the state, Alhaji Rafiu Olorunwa,” Edgal said.
Edgal added that the former union boss had “promised to pay N1.5 million for the murder of Kunle Polly and had given the suspect N500,000 with a promise to pay the balance after the job might have been completed.
According to Edgal, trouble started when Ade Lawyer and his gang missed their target and his efforts to collect the balance of N1 million was rebuffed by Olorunwa, who insisted that his target was not killed.
“Ade lawyer, in anger, seized one of Olorunwa’s vehicles, a Hyundai Santa Fe Sports Utility Vehicle, with Registration No EKY741DL, in lieu of the N1 million balance,” the police boss said.
The suspect while speaking with the Saturday Tribune said “He (Olorunwa) is my boss. I have been working for him since he was the state chairman of the union.”
When asked what kind of job he had been doing for the former NURTW chairman, the suspect said: “I was killing people for him.”
“We killed two people for him during a clash between him and the people who were fighting with him during his time as the state chairman. He said that he was the one that brought Kunle Polly into the NURTW and that Polly had stopped people from paying him his entitlements as the former union leader,” the suspect told newsmen.
Ade Lawyer also added that “He (Olorunwa) came to me on the Monday before the Wednesday that we carried out the operation. He gave me N500, 000 with a promise that he would pay me the balance of N1 million after the operation. He also warned me not to divulge the information about the operation to anybody.”
The suspect confessed to journalists that he killed for many other people within and outside Lagos State and that he had killed no fewer than four people for the former Lagos NURTW chairman.
He also said that “ after we could not get Polly, he refused to pick my calls and when I eventually got him with my private number, he said that he did not want to talk to anybody as a result of the failed operation.
“ I asked him to behave like a man and asked him about my balance but he insisted that he would not pay it since we could not kill Kunle Polly. That was why I collected his vehicle, a Jeep . He promised to balance my money and collect his vehicle,” Ade Lawyer said
Olorunwa, while speaking with journalists, admitted giving N350,000 to the suspect but denied that the money was meant for the operation to kill Kunle Polly.
The former Lagos NURTW leader, who wept profusely while speaking with journalists, said “I was arrested because I was alleged to have sponsored someone who wanted to kill a member of our union. I don t have any connection with him. I knew him as a member of our union through one of my boys. It was after I left office that that boy introduced him to me as one of our supporters. I have only seen him twice in my life.
“The first time I met him was in Ede during the burial of Senator Isiaka Adeleke. He called me that he was coming to Ede but on his way coming, he had an accident,” Olorunwa said.
Olorunwa, who described Ade Lawyer as a very “ notorious and deadly criminal” also claimed that he gave the suspect the money when he begged him for assistance and then threatened to kill him and his family if he did not.
The police said they would charge the suspects to court after investigations.
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