Killers Of 9 Cops Nabbed

The Police in Lagos State have smashed a robbery gang whose members allegedly killed nine policemen during their operations. The  five-man robbery gang was smashed by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Lagos State Police Command after two months manhunt. Their arrest followed a tip off from members.

The 5-man robbery gang terrorised people, robbing banks and snatching exotic vehicles from their owners in Ogun and Lagos states. They killed nine policemen, injured others and carted away their ammunitions during their robbery operations.

They were reported to have killed five policemen in Ogun state; one at Ejigbo, two at Oko Oba and one at Bariga areas of Lagos State. The police identified the arrested suspects as Ejike Mbogu, 23 from Anambra State, Alhaji Taofeek Mumuni, 48, from Odogbolu, Ogun state, Olugbenga Oni, 27, from Osun state, Ogbonna Ekeweeje, 22, a native of Abia State, Qudus Adetoro from Oyo state and Ofule Paul. Their alleged ring leader identified as Seun Adegoke was reportedly shot dead during a gun battle with police.

Items recovered from them included 2 locally made pistols, 2 boxes of AK-47 live ammunition, one AK-47 rifle, 1,500 rounds of ammunitions, 10 AK-47 magazines, Toyota Highlander Jeep, with registration number KJA 402 AW, Honda Accord CRV Jeep with registration number EKY 416 AU and a Toyota Carina car with registration number UC 264 KJA.

In their confessional statements to the police, Mumuni said  they had been robbing residents and banks in Lagos and Ogun states and snatching exotic vehicles at gun point from their owners for the past two years. They, however, denied killing their victims. Surprisngly, they admitted to killing about 9 policemen during their operations.

“We normally sell the stolen vehicles depending on the grades for N2 million, N1 million and N1.2 million, but we sold the last Jeep we snatched from a woman at Ogudu area of Lagos state for N5 million in  Cotonou. We normally meet at Bobby Hotel in  Ikotun area of Lagos state before going out for our operations,” Mumuni volunteered.

Ogbonna on his part said his first operation was the attack on a branch of First Bank in Ekiti state which fetched him N400,000. He begged the police for forgiveness. All the suspects would be charged to court after the completion of investigations.

—Ayodeji Dedeigbo  and Paul Iyoghojie