16th August, 2011
Policemen attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), of the Lagos State Police Command, have impounded a stolen truck carrying a container with motorcycle spare parts.
Disclosing this to P.M.NEWS, officer in charge of SARS, Abba Kyari, said the truck was impounded at the old toll gate of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Sango, Ogun State, after the suspects fled into the bush.
The truck, investigations revealed, was snatched by two men suspected to be robbers from the driver and two of his assistants along Ijebu-Ode road in Ogun State.
The suspects, it was learnt further, jumped out of the truck and fled into the bush at Sango on sighting men of SARS.
Narrating how the truck was snatched by the men, the driver, Ifeanyi Robinson, 42 and his assistant, Ukochukwu Ibeagba, 21, said they were coming from the Apapa Port in Lagos, when they were attacked along Ijebu-Ode road.
The driver explained that some minutes after he arrived Ijebu-Ode toll gate, he observed that two cars were following him. “One of them overtook my vehicle to mount a road block in front, while the other was following me. When I reached the road block, I stopped and immediately, six men came out of hiding and opened the doors of the truck at both ends. I was pulled out together with my two assistants,” the driver stated.
He disclosed that the men attacked him and his assistants with machetes and later took them into the bush where they were searched and everything found on them taken away.
The robbers, he added, tore their clothes and removed their belts which they used to tie their legs and hands.
“They took N64,000 from me, N10,000 from the mechanic and N4,000 from the motor boy. The total amount they collected from us was N78,000.
“Four of the men stayed with us in the bush while the other two entered the truck and drove away.
“The men staying with us started to make calls and around 4 a.m., they told us to face the ground while they changed their clothes. After some time, we looked up and discovered that they had gone,” the driver narrated further, adding that he struggled to untie his hands and later, others.
After this, they walked to the main road and moved towards Ijebu-Ode toll gate to report the incident to the policemen there and were referred to the Area ‘B’ Police Command at Ijebu-Ode, from where they contacted the agent and owner of the truck, Mr. Ben Uzogbuna.
P.M.NEWS gathered that the SARS in Lagos was contacted and acting on a tip-off, trailed the stolen truck and the container to the toll gate at Sango.
—Dedeigbo Ayodeji & Tunde Omidiji