8th February, 2012
Nemesis recently caught up with an armed robbery and car snatching gang when they were arrested by operatives of the Special Anti Robbery Squad, SARS, of the Lagos State Police Command.
The four suspects allegedly confessed to robbing and snatching vehicles around Lekki-Ajah axis of Lagos.
They reportedly confessed to their modus operandi which is to trail their victims’ vehicles to their residences and dispossess them of their vehicles, cash, phones and other valuables.
However, luck ran out on them when they trailed the wife of a businessman to her house at Ajah and snatched her Honda Odyssey bus. They drove the vehicle to Obalende, where it was sighted by the owner’s neighbours who alerted the police and the suspects were arrested.
One of the suspects confessed: “I am an ex-convict and a native of Owo, Ondo State. When I came out of prison after spending two years, I met Akin and when they wanted to go for an operation, I went with them in November 2011, just 14 days after I was released from prison. During that operation, we snatched a Toyota Sienna bus from a woman at Abule-Egba. We took it to a buyer in Ibadan, Oyo State, and my share was N30,000.
“The day we went to Ajah, we followed the woman as she drove towards her house. We had earlier snatched two Honda cars. The woman and her security guard led us everywhere inside the house but when we told the woman to open one of the rooms, she refused, saying she had not entered the room since she married her husband.
“We forced the door opened and we saw plenty of juju in the room, we rushed out, unable to go further. But we stole a laptop computer, some jewellery and the vehicle. Yinusa drove the car to Obalende and the police arrested us, but Yinusa escaped,” he added.
The female suspect among them said: “I am from Ogoja, Cross River State. I reside in Lagos with my mother at Ifelodun Street, Command Road, Ipaja, Lagos.
“I was arrested when I went to visit my boyfriend because I had a misunderstanding with my mother.”
According to police sources, items recovered from the suspects include two locally made cut to size guns, a locally made single barrel gun, one barreta pistol, 15 live ammunition, 27 catridges and charms.
—Oluwole Adeboye & Dedeigbo Ayodeji