By SIMON EBEGBULEM

BENIN CITY— Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, yesterday, disclosed that his men have arrested the killers of the Principal Private Secretary to Governor Adams Oshiomhole  of Edo State, Mr. Olaitan Oyerinde, who was killed by suspected assassins on May 5, 2012.

The IG who disclosed this shortly after a meeting with policemen at the Zone 5 headquarters of the Nigeria Police Benin City, said: “I want to announce that we have arrested four persons who killed the PA to the governor. And that is a credit to the police.”

Though the IG did not give details of how the arrest was made, he condemned the deadline given to the police to find the killers of Oyerinde, saying “you can’t just give the police 24 hours to do a miracle. We have to investigate and look at all the facts of the matter before we can come to a conclusion.”

He expressed disappointment at the condemnation of the police by some individuals as regards the April 28 incident in which four journalists traveling in the convoy of Oshiomhole died in the accident, saying that the incident was not a premeditated assassination attempt on the governor.

He said: “Investigations were conducted by the police. Investigations are made based on the preponderance of evidence. We were not there. But we have conducted our own investigation and facts available to us led to the conclusion we made.”

The Inspector General of Police observed that it was irresponsible for some eminent Nigerians to make public statements without backing them with facts, adding “We expect Nigerians to be responsible when they are making statements. You cannot make allegations that you cannot prove. We stand by our statement on the matter until wer are proved otherwise.”

He refused to make public the number of policemen and officers that have been deployed in Edo State for election duty, saying “I don’t think it is important to list the number of personnel deployed for the election. But we have a lot of men that you cannot see.”