Fresh facts emerged, yesterday, on the death of the commercial bus conductor allegedly killed by policemen attached to Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, along the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway penultimate Monday, with the arrest of four additional policemen.

The arrested policemen included an Assistant Superintendent of Police, a Sergeant and two Corporals.

The latest arrest, it was learned, followed investigation which revealed that the policemen earlier arrested were not members of the team that operated along the route on that day.

Reports indicated that earlier, a Police Inspector, suspected to be the team leader, a Sergeant and two Corporals were arrested in connection with the murder of the 36-year-old bus conductor, Ikechukwu Abasirim.

However, during investigations by the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Yaba, the Inspector (team leader) reportedly exonerated himself from the blame, revealing, however, that he knew members of the team that operated along the route.

Police sources said: “We arrested the Inspector and four other policemen including the driver of the commercial bus which the deceased was attached to.

“But the Inspector told us that the main suspect, one Corporal Omage from Edo State, was not his team member. He explained that he (Omage) left his team for another before the incident.

“From our findings, we discovered that Omage was attached to another team headed by an ASP.”

Preliminary investigation, it was reliably gathered, further showed that after last Monday’s incident, Corporal Omage and his team rushed to their office at Cele Bus Stop, where they submitted their light weapons, released the two buses they commandeered for operation to their owners and hurriedly left the office.

Since the incident, Corporal Omage and members of his team had been reportedly out of reach until last Monday when they were picked up alongside their team leader.

As a result of the latest arrest, Vanguard gathered, the policemen earlier arrested in connection with Abasirim’s death had been released. Also released from custody was the driver of the commercial bus, who the deceased worked with.

However, Vanguard gathered that during interrogation, the arrested policemen denied being on duty on that day.

But impeccable police sources revealed that the duty roaster at the police division close to LASTMA’s office at Oshodi, indicated they were on duty.

In their statement, the policemen reportedly stated that they returned their light weapons at about 1p.m. on that day.

But when the record book was checked, it was discovered that they submitted the weapons earlier, a time considered to be within the time-frame of incident.

Police sources hinted that investigation was still ongoing and that the Commissioner of Police had directed that a discreet investigation be conducted to unravel the circumstances behind the incident and also bring those involved to book: be they policemen or not.

The source said: “Currently, we are yet to carry out autopsy on the deceased. But we have filled the coroner’s form which is awaiting signature of the magistrate.”