Kobad Baron: Notorious cult leader, arrested in Gboko, Benue State

A cult leader, Malik Onebiri, a.k.a. Kobad Baron, has been arrested by the Lagos Police Command for killing a police sergeant during a protest at Ifako Ijaiye area of Lagos.

The police said the suspect was the one who fired the shot that killed Sergeant Collins Esiabor on August 29, 2018.

His arrest brings to 19 suspected cult members so far nabbed for their alleged involvement in the killing of the policeman. Baron and 18 others are being detained at the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCID), Panti Street, Yaba.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, had last week paraded 18 persons, among whom is the head of a masquerade group, Igunnuko and an herbalist arrested in connection with the crime.

Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Chike Oti, who confirmed the arrest, said after the mob comprising mainly of members of the notorious Eiye confraternity attacked a police patrol team stationed at Haruna bus stop by College Road, Ifako Ijaiye, Ogba, vandalising a patrol car and killing one Sergeant Collins Esiabor in the process, the Commissioner of Police vowed that the command would arrest those behind the dastardly act.

Oti explained that the CP while making the vow, said the leader of the group, one Malik Onebiri, alias Kobad Baron who allegedly fired the shot that killed the officer, could only run but not hide.

He said that in keeping to the pledge, the operatives of the command attached to Area ‘G’ Command, Ogba, swung into action and have so far arrested 19 persons who took part in the crime, while, the arrow head of the group, Malik Onebiri, left the state immediately after the attack.

“However, through discreet investigation carried out on the matter, police detectives arrested the said Malik Onebiri in his hideout in Gboko, Benue State,” he added.

The Lagos police image-maker revealed that investigation thus far revealed that the notorious cultists attacked the police team to avenge the death of one of their members, who died while fleeing when he sighted a contingent of policemen on operational duties around Ifako Ijaiye, Ogba.

According to him, the deceased probably thought the police team came for his arrest and took to his heels, fatally injuring himself in the process.“It was also discovered that nobody reported the fate of the boy said to be a member of the Eiye confraternity until his associates in the cult group attacked the police patrol team,” the PPRO added