The Nation Newspaper

Category: Crime Diary

  • How fake NNPC, DPR officials swindled me of N4m — Female fuel dealer

    A 59-year-old suspect and indigene of Iree, Osun State, Felix Afolabi, accused along with two members of a fraud syndicate of defrauding a female petrol dealer to the tune of N4 million, has claimed he got only N200,000 from the dirty deal. The victim, Mrs Mediatris Omotayo, was said to have alerted the police about her predicament when the gang attempted to kill her. The other suspects are Ganiyu Lawal and one Tunde who is still at large.

    Narrating his role in the incident, Afolabi said: “I am a building contractor based in Lagos. I used a room in my house at No. 1, Afolabi Close, Ajasa Road, Meiran, Lagos, as my office. Ganiyu and I both hail from Iree town. We grew up together, but after my primary education in Iree, I went to Atan Iregbaja in Osun State for my secondary education. I later went to a technical school in Ife.

    “I knew Ganiyu as a driver. We later met in Lagos as friends. The day I met him and Tunde in front of an eatery’s outlet, I asked them where they were going to and they said they were going to Ejigbo fuel depot. I decided to go with them.

    “ As we were going, they branched to a filling station and asked the manager to call the owner of the filling station. They showed him their identity cards, claiming that they were officials of the NNPC (Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation) and DPR (Department of Petroleum Resources).

    “The manager said the owner of the filling station was not around but they said they wanted to speak with the owner of the filling station on the phone. The manager said he had no credit in his phone. Tunde and Ganiyu aalso said they had no credit in their phones.

    “I told Tunde that I had credit in my phone. I gave it to Tunde and he called the owner of the filling station, identifying himself and Ganiyu as officials of NNPC and DPR. He said they had come to shut down the filling station because the owner had no licence to operate it.

    “The owner, a woman, directed the manager of the filling station to give us N10,000 for fuel and we drove off. When we reached Ejigbo, they dropped me.

    “About a month later, Tunde called me one morning and said that Ganiyu would come and give me N200,000. He later came, gave me the N200,000 and left. Although when I counted it later I saw only N173,000, I was happy and prayed to God to bless all of them. I did not know what business they had done.”

    Asked why they would give him N200,000 just like that, he said: “I don’t follow them to dupe people. My role was to help them secure bail whenever they were arrested by the police or charged to court. I used to perfect their bail and they used to reward me handsomely.

    “I was helping them to secure bail because they were not armed robbers. What they did was to obtain money by false pretence. You would not have seen me with them if they were armed robbers.

    “The day they went to threaten the woman with gun, they did so for her to forget about the N4 million they collected from her without supplying fuel. They did not mean to kill her. Otherwise, they would not have allowed her to escape from the spot where they had asked her to meet them to collect her money.

    “Securing bail for offenders was the first job I did when I came to Lagos. I used to go to police stations and courts to look for people to bail. That was around 1986. None of the people I had assisted ever jumped bail. I was doing it just to survive.

    “What the police normally did was to take my picture and ask me to sign that I would produce the suspect at the time the police or the court wanted the suspect or accused to appear. I was doing it before I secured a better job.”

    On how he joined the gang, he said: “There was a driver who used to drive Tunde and Ganiyu any time they wanted to operate. But there was a job they did and shared the loot without giving a dime to the driver.

    “When the driver reported them to me, I advised him to go and report them at the Meiran Police Station. That was about three years ago. He said Tunde and Ganiyu bought cars from the deal but did not to give him a dime. That was when I took interest and started following them.

    “I got big money and through the business, I was able to build two houses in Lagos. My only regret is that I did not know that the money they collected from the woman was over N4 million. Ganiyu said it was N2.7 million, whereas it was more than N4 million. I will help police to arrest Tunde who is still at large.

    “I was the one who led the operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) to the house of Ganiyu. When we got there, Ganiyu hid under the mattress. When the police saw how the mattress was, they suspected that something was under it but his wife tried to deceive them. Her husband had parked his car about three poles away from the house to give the impression that he was not in. When policemen removed the mattress, they saw Ganiyu, arrested him and took him to SARS building in Ikeja. There they asked him to make a statement.”

    Narrating how she was duped by the suspects, the victim, Mrs. Mediatris Omotayo (40) said: “I did not know Ganiyu until they came to the filling station. Three of them, Ganiyu, Tunde and Afolabi came to the filling station. They showed me their identity cards claiming that they were members of the staff of NNPC and DPR and that they wanted to see the certificate that gave me the right to operate a filling station.

    “When I showed them the receipt of the documents showing the application to operate a filling station, which allows us to start selling petroleum products, they said I should give them money for fuel. I told my boy to give them N10,000 and they collected it and left. That was on August 10, 2012.

    “The second day, being August 11, Tunde called me on the phone, saying he was the one that came to the station the previous day. I thanked him. He said since we had no approval, we would be buying from a third party and it would be very expensive. I said yes, that I normally bought from a third party. He dropped the phone.

    “Two days later, he called and said he felt for me. He said he had discussed with one of his bosses named Ganiyu Lawal and he promised to assist me because he normally got allocations from the Musimi depot. I said I would appreciate that, thinking that they were real DPR staff.

    “He said he would go and meet Ganiyu. He called later and asked me to hold on for his boss. I greeted him (Ganiyu) and told him that his boy said he would assist. He said he was getting allocations from all the depots in Lagos and that he supplied even the Texaco filling station in Ojota.

    “I pleaded with him to help me. He said he would give me fuel at N92.50 per litre. I said we were buying at N92 per litre and he said okay. He said he had two trucks at Mosimi, which contained about 66,000 litres and would cost about N6 million. I could not raise up to that amount. He asked how much I could raise and I said N4 million.

    “He said he was going to Abuja for a wedding on that day and that we would continue when he returned. On Monday morning, I was the one that called him. He said he was with the driver and that he would not want to discuss it in his presence.

    “At about 10 am, I called and he said if I had the N4 million, I should go and pay. I went to WEMA Bank and transferred N2.6 million. I later made cash payments in Eko Bank as follows: first payment N436,000; second payment N968,000; all totaling N4.004 million. I later called him and told him that I had made the payment and he said he had seen the alert and that we should meet the following day at Mosimi. I paid the money into Lawal Shola Folayemi’s account.

    “The same morning, I called at Mosimi and he said in 10 minutes time, he would be with me. Thirty minutes passed but I did not see him, and when I called him on the phone, he had switched off his two phone numbers.

    “The following Monday, he called again and said since I was not supplied the product, I should come for my money. He said I should wait for him before the gate of Mosimi depot. I was there and they were calling me with a hidden number.

    “While I waited there with my brother, we saw some frightening people with fez caps and ran to the next village. They started calling me, saying that if I didn’t come to collect the money, they would kill me.

    “My husband advised that we should write a petition to the Commissioner of Police and SARS was asked to handle the case. I quoted their phone numbers and the bank account numbers I paid the money into. The police later arrested them.

    “Ganiyu said he collected money from me but that it was N2.7 million only that Tunde gave him instead of N4.004 million, and that he should be given time to pay because he is hypertensive and diabetic. He was pleading to be given time and the IPO asked him how he was going to pay; whether he would sell his house or cars. I later left.”

    The other suspect, Ganiyu Lawal (59) was said to be receiving treatment at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Idi-Araba. He was said to be in coma after the police allegedly hit him in the head with gun butt. He was said to have been assaulted by policemen who allegedly invaded his 15, Odekeye Street, Puposhola, New Oko-Oba, Agege Lagos home on April 25. Although he was said to have regained consciousness after a surgery was conducted to remove the clot in his brain, he was found to have suffered memory loss.

    His eldest son, Saheed, said his father was allegedly tortured over an alleged N4 million fraud, while Lawal said the money was N2.7 million. It was also gathered that as at April 28, the police had spent more than N300,000 on Lawal and was doing everything to ensure that he survived and help in the effort to get Tunde, the third suspect, arrested.

     

  • ‘My fiancé was a prisoner when I fell in love with him, but I didn’t know he was jailed for armed robbery’

    ‘My fiancé was a prisoner when I fell in love with him, but I didn’t know he was jailed for armed robbery’

    THE saying that every day is for the thief but one day for the owner found expression in Anambra State recently with the arrest of some people suspected to be involved in car snatching.

    One of the suspects arrested by men of the State Security Service (SSS) was 29-year-old Ukamaka Okafor, a native of Ijinike, Enugu State. Her arrest, she said, was all like a scene in a Nollywood movie. Amid tears, she confessed that she was lured from her fast food business on Presidential Road, Enugu into armed robbery by her fiance who was in jail over the same crime.

    The dark complexioned lady was arrested by the SSS with two other suspects, Ugochukwu Okeke, a 38-year-old native of Osu village in Umunachi, and Isah Yusuf who hails from Maraban Jos in Kaduna State.

    Okeke, who claimed to have worked as a driver before he had a squabble with his boss and had also worked as a carpenter, was nabbed by SSS men at Abatete, Idemili North Local Government Area, Anambra State on April 3, with the help of Abatete vigilance group.

    He was said to have been involved in the snatching a red Toyota Highlander jeep with Anambra registration number HTE 335 AA. The said vehicle was said to belong to a South African-based prophetess, Victoria Nkiru Onuorah and was snatched from her at gunpoint on April 1, 2013 at Ichida, Anaocha Local Government Area.

    However, investigation into how the gang intended to dispose of the vehicle took operatives of the command to Kaduna where Isah Yusuf (26) was also arrested. According to the Anambra State Director of (SSS), Mr. Alex Okeiyi, Yusuf was on standby to take the vehicle to one Alhaji Dogo in Sokoto.

    According to Okeiyi, on getting to Sokoto, the said Alhaji was nowhere to be found. But enquiries made by the SSS revealed that members of his syndicate were responsible for taking such cars to Niger Republic where they are sold.

    Okeiyi said the operatives returned to Enugu and called Ukamaka Okafor, who already had an arrangement with her prisoner fiance, Nonso Nwude, to collect the proceeds from the sale of the vehicle. Unknown to her, the people that had called her were security operatives. They arrested her as soon as she got to the location.

    Narrating her plight to The Nation, Ukamaka, who sobbed continuously, said she never knew that her fiancé was an armed robber. But she admitted that she was the one who smuggled a mobile phone and SIM card to Nwude sometime in August 2012.

    The handset and SIM card, she said, were hidden in some raw rice she sent to Nwude in prison.

    She said: “On April 12, I was cooking in my shop when my fiancé sent me a text message from prison that I should rush to Shoprite to see the person who would give me money to prosecute my case. I left what I was doing and rushed to the site where I was arrested.

    “My mother had warned me against marrying somebody who was in prison. It was a friend called Njideka who linked me with Nonso (Nwude) and his father in March 2012 after narrating what led him to prison. From there, I started sending him food in prison before this incident.”

    Another suspected member of the syndicate, Ugochukwu Okeke, said he was lured into the gang by a friend he met at a mechanic workshop in February, 2012. Before then, he had been in prison custody for eight months before he was granted amnesty by the Chief Judge of Anambra State in 2011.

    He said: “As I was repairing my Mercedes Benz car, which I bought for N100,000 given to me by my wife when I came out of prison, one man walked in and we started talking. He introduced himself as Oga Uche. From there, one thing led to another.”

    The same Oga Uche had sold a rickety Honda Accord car to Okeke for N65,000; a development he said helped to cement their relationship.

    “On Good Friday, he called me again and said he had a Camry car he wanted to sell for N800,000. I told him that I did not have money, but he said he would introduce me into another business.

    “When he came around, he said we should hang out. He asked whether I could drive well and I said yes. We went out and saw this jeep and he said we should pursue it. We followed the jeep and snatched it from the woman at gunpoint and I drove it to my house.

    “Before I was arrested, we had arranged how to dispose it for N1.2 million, I am now regretting my action.”

    Yusuf said he was a brother-in-law to Alhaji Dogo, the alleged receiver of the goods stolen by the syndicate. Speaking in Hausa with the aid of an interpreter, Yusuf said: “I was at home when Alhaji Dogo called me on the phone, because he is marrying my sister. He told me that a visitor was coming.

    “He told me that the visitor’s money had finished and that I should give them money at the hotel. On getting to the hotel, I did not see anybody. After waiting till evening, l left. But the following day, Alhaji called me that the visitor had arrived and that I should meet him at the car wash to collect some money.

    “He described the car to me, but when I went there, I was arrested by SSS men. This is my first time in this business.”

    But it was not only the alleged car snatchers that were arrested. Two other persons, Emmanuel Molokwu (21) from Umuota Udoaraba in Obosi community and Stanley Ndefo (20) from Umuota village in the same Obosi were also arrested by SSS operatives for armed robbery.

    They were apprehended by the security operatives at Enugu-Agidi in Njikoka Local Government Area, Anambra State on April 6 after snatching a woman’s handbag at gunpoint close to UNIZIK Junction in Awka.

    The suspects, according to Okeiyi, were intercepted by his men as they rode on a carter motorcycle with registration number VW 836 ENU clutching a brown female bag. He said in the course of the interception, the suspects abandoned their motorcycle and fled. They also abandoned a locally made double barrel pistol with six rounds of live ammunition.”

    However, the command succeeded in tracing the owner of the bag, Jacinta Oge Onukaigbo, a civil servant.

    In their confessions, the suspects told The Nation that they were a disgrace to their parents and communit

    Stammering Molokwu said: “My parents do not know my whereabouts till now, and I am sorry for letting them down. Nobody expected this from me. If I come out of this, I will never try it again.”

    He said it was his partner, Stanley Ndefo, who lured him into armed robbery after some drinking spree at a beer parlour in Obosi. He said Ndefo took him to an abandoned house and showed him a wrapped gun for the operation

    But Ndefo denied introducing Molokwu to robbery, adding that both of them agreed to delve into the trade. He said he acquired the gun during the war between Obosi and Nkpor a couple of years back, having picked it up from the gutter.

    He said his initial intention was not to use the gun for robbery but to sell it and get enough money to take him back to Abuja where he was working as a taxi driver.

    “I am a disgrace to my family, especially my mother. I am now born again. I will never indulge in such a thing again,” he said.

  • I’m not a member of robbery gang, I’m only their friend

    I’m not a member of robbery gang, I’m only their friend

    Following a tip-off by members of the public, operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) have arrested a robbery suspect at Orisunbare, Ayobo area of Lagos. The suspect, named Kazeem Adebola, was said to be acting as the armourer for a robbery gang.

    A SARS operative, named Charles, was said to have stormed Kazeem’s one-room apartment at Orisumbare after he got information that he was in custody of weapons belonging to the gang. His adventure did not yield immediate dividend because he did not find any incriminating item in the house.

    He was, however, perturbed by the fact that the one room the suspect lived in had no burglary proof, a situation that could help a criminal to easily escape arrest by jumping through the window into the nearby bush.

    Adebola was said to have denied being an armed robber or having any gun in his house. The policeman, however, proceeded to the kitchen to carry out a search. As he searched the kitchen, he saw a sack and opened it only to find two AK47 rifles. He then threatened to shoot the suspect dead if he did not tell the truth.

    At that point, Adebola said the rifles belonged to his friend named Asumo who he said also owned a car parked in front of the house. He swore that he had not stolen a pin in his life.

    The SARS operative ordered the suspect to move to the car purportedly owned by Asumo and a search on the car revealed three other AK47 rifles and 16 magazines fully loaded with 30 live ammunition each.

    Charles immediately whistled to another SARS operative who had come with him to search the ceiling of the house, while he kept watch on the suspect to prevent him from escaping. In the ceiling of the house, 17 other magazines loaded with 30 rounds of live ammunition were said to have been discovered.

    The SARS operatives then took the suspect, the rifles, magazines and the car, a Honda Civic Coupe with registration number EST 592 BC, to Scorpion House at the Police Command Headquarters, Ikeja, for further investigation.

    Adebola said: “I live in one room in Orisumbare area of Ayobo. The house has no street address because most houses there have not been given street names. But I work at Olusola area of the same Ayobo. I can swear by anything, that I am not an armed robber. I have not stolen anybody’s money or property. I am only a hustler.

    “I am not the owner of the rifles. I have a friend called Asumo. He is a very close friend. Last week, he visited me, and I am such a person my friends like to even sleep in my room, no matter their number, so far as they are not armed robbers.

    “So, last week, Asumo came with the Honda Civic. When I opened the car, I saw two AK47 rifles. I took them to the kitchen and hid them there so that the police would not pay me surprise visit and see the rifles in my room.

    “I am telling you the truth; the rifles belong to Asumo. I did not know that there were more rifles and loaded magazines in the car and in the ceiling. I don’t know how the magazines entered the ceiling.

    “There was a time Asumo came with some of his boys but I was tired and slept off. It might be that time that they hid the magazines and ammunition in the ceiling.

    “To prove my innocence, the five rifles and 31 AK47 magazines fully loaded and neatly parked and concealed in a specially constructed compartment in a silver colour Civic Coupe belong to Asumo and his gang members.

    “I know that Asumo is an armed robber, but he is my friend. I cannot deny him. I kept the weapons for him for good three days so that he would make time to come and carry them.

    “Even whenever they hold meetings in my house, I never cared to pokenose. I am not a gang member but a mere friend to Asumo. I kept weapons for them temporarily. Therefore, I am not qualified to be addressed as the gang’s armourer.”

  • ‘How I duped a General by parading myself as a CBN supervisor’

    ‘How I duped a General by parading myself as a CBN supervisor’

    A suspected member of a three-man robbery gang arrested by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command has said that he preferred operating as a fraudster to engaging in armed robbery. Thirty-five-year-old Abiodun Akinniyi said he preferred to function as a fraudster because it is an activity that requires more of brain than weapons.

    Akinniyi is cooling his heels in SARS’ cell alongside two other suspected members of the gang, Akinsiku Olaseinde (40) and Tajudeen Lasisi (40). Narrating his experience in the underworld, he said: “I am from Awe town in Oyo State. I am a carpenter by profession. There was no type of carpentry work I did not do to get money. I did not want to be too rich. I needed just enough money to keep me going, but many of my customers intentionally refused to pay me or disappeared whenever the money involved was much.

    “At times, they would ask me to exercise patience as they would soon get the money to pay me. At other times, I would continue to wait till the money became bad debt and irretrievable. Any attempt to take them to court would work in their favour as the courts would grant them bail since their offences were bailable. I became frustrated by the insincerity of customers, and that made me to think of changing to another kind of job.

    “It was during these trying moments that I met a friend named Ajimosun and he turned me into a fraudster. That is why I call him my mentor. He tutored me well on how to obtain by false pretence. He said that fraudsters were only exploiting the greed of victims who wanted to reap where they did not sow. He said every lawyer begs the police to charge his client to court to enable him to secure the bail of his client and frustrate the victim with long adjournments or getting the case struck out.

    “Ajimosun also said that armed robbery is a more serious crime and the accused cannot dream of securing a bail. He would be kept in the prison yard to wait for the recommendations of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP). He said fraudsters are respected, while robbers are treated like lepers. He taught me a lot of things, but the one that I practised, which caused my arrest, was that I should first look for the mobile phone number of the victim through his complimentary card and start a conversation with him or her.

    “The GSM number can also be got from someone the victim had been calling or from a special business centre. I call it special because such centres are solely established to monitor people’s GSM numbers in order to defraud them. Even some GSM centres that are not controlled by fraudsters are also useful. If we want the GSM number of a particular person, we would just go for phone call the moment he drops the phone and look for called numbers.

    “Other victims are those who are desperate to get accommodation, buy land, obtain international passport and visa, secure admission into higher institutions and others who want to hit the jackpot.”

    Asked why he was arrested, he said: “I met the victim in October last year opposite the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). I told him that I was a supervisor in the CBN and that the money I wanted to shift to him must be properly guarded to avoid leakage. I told him that we would divide the dollars on equal basis and he agreed. That was how the general fell victim. I even showed him my identity card and he was very happy.

    “He even gave me the sum of N6,000 for transport after the discussion I had with him for over two hours. I told him, among other things, that I would bring a consignment of dollars and I asked him for money to hire a bullion van to bring the money.

    “He gave me N47,000 in October last year. I later invited him to Lagos in January. He came and gave me N37,000 to facilitate the delivery of the consignment. He also gave me another N10,000 the same month, bringing the total cash he gave me to N141,000.

    “The victim is a retired army general. I thanked him very much and asked God to continue to bless him.”

  • I’m a cultist not an armed robber, says suspect arrested with pistol

    I’m a cultist not an armed robber, says suspect arrested with pistol

    A  robbery suspect arrested by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command has said the pistol the police found in his possession belonged to the leader of a gang his own group had a confrontation with at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) recently.

    Opeyemi Odusanya, a 25-year-old indigene of Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State resident in Ikorodu part of Lagos, said he picked the gun at the scene of a crime, ignorant of the legal implications of his action. He also said he had intended to submit the weapon in question to the security men at the gates of UNILAG before he was beaten to coma and handed over to policemen at the Sabo police station.

    The suspect said he was once a student of Political Science at UNILAG but was rusticated for securing admission into the school without following due process.

    Explaining the incident in the daily police bulletin called Sitrep, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Lagos State Police Command, Ngozi Braide, a Deputy Superintendent of police (DSP) said it occurred at about 6.20 pm on February 7, 2013.

    Braide said Odusanya was arrested for attempting to rob one Vincent Okafor of money. She also said one locally made pistol, two live cartridges and one expended cartridge were recovered from the suspect, adding that investigation was ongoing at the Ikeja headquarters of SARS.

    Although the mammoth crowd allegedly did not give the suspect enough time to defend himself as he received blows right, left and centre, he spoke with our correspondent and stated his own side of the story. Odusanya said he was once a student of the University of Lagos but was rusticated because he forged his admission letter and the university later found out during a screening exercise.

    He said: “I was admitted to do Political Science in 2009. I knew that I did not enter the university with correct admission letter. I bought my admission letter. I spent more than N100,000 to secure admission.

    “When I was admitted into the university in 2009 to do Political Science, I knew that trouble might come one day, especially because I was a prominent member of a cult, the Eye Fraternity. I knew that my enemies would be probing me. With this situation, I started learning surveying in one of the private survey companies in Lagos. When I had learnt surveying, I started doing working to get money to pay my school fees and face other financial challenges.

    “I was doing well until they found that I entered the university with a fake admission letter and I was rusticated at 300 level. To survive, I continued my survey work but I could not complete some of the jobs I got from my clients. Some who paid did not get the service they expected. Hence, I started losing my clients.

    “When jobs were no longer coming, I made time out to meet some of my friends in the university and those outside, especially those who were my co-cult members. So, on that February 7, I went to the campus to meet my friend, Lateef, when I heard that there would be convocation. When I got to the second gates of the university, I saw people running helter skelter. When I enquired, they said it was one cult group that was having a clash with another. The guy I was going to meet was among the cultists.

    “What happened on that day, which witnessed heavy fighting and gunshots between the two cult groups, surprised me. But having been an Eye cult member, I joined my Eye members to challenge the other cult members. I didn’t know the name of the other cult, but I later learnt that they were the Black Cats.

    “They were shooting into the air, but I was not scared because of the spiritual work I had done on my body. If one is a surveyor and he is doing well, he will have many enemies. Some of the enemies who do not want him to progress will want to harm or kill him. Hence, I did some spiritual work on my body to shield me from the wiles of my enemies.

    “So, on that very day, I was not afraid. I followed the Eye Fraternity to fight the Black Cats, and they ran away when we gained the upper hand. But before they ran away, they fired into the air. They did not kill anybody. Their leader, who was holding their lone gun, dropped the gun before running, and I quickly picked it up. So, when I was arrested by the campus security men, they found in my possession the locally made gun.

    “I did not deny the fact that I picked it from the ground. I picked the gun after it was dropped by the other cult group when they were escaping. The expended cartridge was one of the bullets the Black Cats’ leader fired. I did not fire any shot. I picked the gun to prevent it from getting into the wrong hand. I had wanted to hand it over to the campus security men, not knowing that they saw me as the owner of the gun since they found it in my hand.

    “The two cartridges they gave the police were also dropped by the fleeing Black Cat cult members. I swear by my life that I am not an armed robber. When the security men arrested me, they gave me the beating of my life. I did not know that I would survive the beating. I only survived by God’s grace. The campus security men later took me to Sabo police station where I was locked up and later transferred to SARS.

    “I was not the one who robbed the boy that was selling ice cream. The boy was beaten by Black Cats members. I learnt that they robbed the ice cream man of his N6,400 or so. I did not rob the ice cream man. I only picked the gun they dropped. But I lost the opportunity to hand it over to the campus security men as they rounded me up and beat me while four of my colleagues ran away.”

     

  • We operated with master keys and fake guns

    THE Lagos State Police Command has smashed a suspected robbery gang made up of panel beaters, drivers, car dealers, native doctors, private security men, auto mechanics, landlords, fake pastors and businessmen without fixed business addresses.

    Suspected members of the gang arrested by the police include Seyi Oyewale, Saheed Adebayo, Isa Adegbenro, Kayode Quadri, Afeez Ibrahim and Femi Ashiru. Others, including one Kazeem a.k.a. Naira and Alaba, were said to be at large.

    Narrating his role in the series of robbery operations they allegedly carried out before their arrest, one of the suspects, Afeez Ibrahim a.k.a. Sharpman, a 35-year-old indigene of Odogbolu town, Ogun State, said: “I am a panel beater. I was doing well in my job before I met Femi Ashiru (one of the suspects in police net).

    “I made so much money that I built a house of my own. I was contented with the money I made on a daily basis. I worked seven days in a week. The moment Femi came into my life, my character changed. I started lying to my customers. At times, I deliberately destroyed a part of a car and collected money from the owner to buy a tokunbo (fairly used) part to replace it.

    “At times, some customers would give me their cars to work on but Femi would advise me to sell it. He later started supplying me cars and jeeps snatched by his gang to sell. I became a receiver of stolen vehicles.

    “Unfortunately, the new business I found myself doing dragged me into a lot of police cases. This affected my job as a panel beater. Hence, I abandoned the job and sold my house and other belongings in order to survive. When life became too difficult for me, I joined the gang and started going to robbery operations with them.”

    Asked how many vehicles he received from Femi before joining the gang, he said: “It was the devil who made me an armed robber and receiver of stolen cars. Somebody in our village made the charm against me to become a criminal. What happened to me was not ordinary. I was doing well but suddenly, I became a liar, cheating my customers. I became a receiver of stolen goods and eventually joined the gang.

    “In fact, I joined two gangs. The vehicles I received included Toyota Camry, which I sold for N200,000, and Toyota Muscle, which I sold for N600,000. I also received a 4-Runner Jeep from Kazeem and resold it for N450,000. My gain here was N50,000. Kazeem, known also as Baba Ope or Naira, is still at large.

    “I also sold a Toyota Highlander for N500,000 and gave the money to Kazeem, but till date, he did not give me a dime. He promised to give me the balance when I brought another car. I later brought a Hyundai and he gave me N30,000 only. I gave him a Rav4 which was sold for N350,000, but I was given only N20,000.

    Asked how he was arrested, he said: “Femi was first arrested by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command. He led them to my house and they saw me and arrested me.”

    The second suspect, Seye Oyewale a.k.a. Sheyi Campus (27), who hails from Osogbo, Osun State, said: “I am happily married with a set of twins. I was a member of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) before I became an armed robber. But we don’t use real guns. We operated with fake guns and master keys.”

    Explaining how he joined a robbery gang, he said: “I was called by one guy called Alaba to follow him to Ifako Ijaiye area (Lagos) to rob in November last year. We were three in number, namely myself, Isa Adegbenro from Ogun State and Alaba. I reside at No. 5, Adara Martin Street, Agbelekale area, Oke-Odo.

    “When we reached Ifako at about 9 pm, we collected a Toyota Camry car parked by the road side. When the owner saw us and came to stop us, I used the fake gun to scare him away and zoomed off with his car. The man was forced out of the car and Isa drove it. We took the car to Afeez Ibrahim and he paid N150,000. I was given only N30,000 when the money was shared.

    “The second operation occurred at Oko-Oba Road. We snatched a Toyota Muscle car. The owner left the key at the ignition and went to buy something nearby. We took it to Afeez and collected N400,000, but I was not given a dime for my efforts. Isa gave the whole N400,000 to Afeez.

    “When I confronted Isa, he told me that Alaba collected my money for me. Alaba is still at large. Alaba is the gang leader and we operate at the Oko-Oba axis in Lagos.

    “I was the one who sold a Samsung handset to Sunday for N3,000. He was our regular handset buyer and receiver, but he did not follow us to operations. We heard that he had been charged to court because he was using the handset he bought from me and SARS operatives tracked him down.”

    The third suspect, Kayode Quadri (37), an indigene of Ilorin, Kwara State and resident of Oke Otaona, Ikorodu, said he was a driver at a secondary school in Otaona on a monthly salary of N25,000 before he joined the robbery gang.

    He said: “I joined the robbery gang because my salary was too poor. How can I manage N25,000? If I were a commercial bus driver or trailer driver, I would be getting more than N50,000 every month. If you see the insult I receive from teachers as a school driver, you would pity me.

    “When I joined the gang, my role was to drive them to points of operation and bring them back. I still go to school to drive, depending on the time we fixed our robbery operation.”

    On how he joined the suspects, he said: “I know Saidi, Naira and Sharpman. We used to smoke Indian hemp at the same joint. One Sunday, I followed Sharpman and Naira to do one job (armed robbery) at Adama side, Ikorodu. I was their driver.

    “After robbing some people we had met on the road, we saw one man in a Toyota Highlander and stopped him, dragged him out and zoomed off with his car. I was not paid a dime until I was arrested by operatives of SARS. That happened this January.

    “We drove a Honda Civic car to the robbery scene and snatched the Highlander. Afeez was both the receiver and one of the strikers. I was not given a dime because they told me that the Highlander jeep had not been sold. I was told that they were going to snatch a vehicle before I joined them. So, I was not forced to become a part of the action.”

    The fourth suspect, Isa Adegbenro a (27) from Abeokuta, Ogun State, who resides at 25, Musiliu Street, Agege, said he was an auto mechanic and driver. He said: “I am happily married with two children. I live in Oko Oba. SARS operatives arrested Seye and they used him to arrest me. I don’t know these people. They belong to another gang entirely. I belong to Alaba’s gang, though the police has not arrested Alaba. He is still our great gang leader.

    “Other members of our gang are Seye and Isa. We are a three-man gang and we operate around the Oko-Oba axis. There was a time we snatched a Toyota Camry and sold it for N150,000 to Afeez. I got only N35,000. We also snatched an Orobo Toyota Camry, the one they call Toyota Muscle, and sold it for N400,000. I got N100,000.

    “I had my workshop at Pleasure Bus stop area, very close to Ile-Epo market before the owners of the land demolished our workshop and built a residential building and shops there. When I was chased away from there, I had no alternative but to join this gang in order to survive.

    “I vow that I will never operate with real gun because I had no intention of killing my victims. We used to use master keys and fake guns. Alaba is the gang leader and he does not use a gun. He uses master keys.”

    The fifth suspect, 27-year-old Saidi Adebayo, who hails from Itamaga village, Ikorodu Lagos State, is married with a nine-month old baby. He said: “I am a plumber. I also dig borehole. I was on a playground in Itamaga area one evening when Kazeem came to meet me. He asked why I had decided to suffer like my father who did security work, because I was doing a security job at Mowonla.

    “It was there that I knew Kazeem, Afeez and Quadri, a wonderful native doctor. They asked me to follow them to do one job. I asked them what job but they said they would tell me the next day. They only said it was a job that would give me quick and big money. The next day, he told me that the job was about collecting vehicles from people. I left in anger. He later called me on the phone but I refused to pick his call.

    “He came later and asked why I refused to pick his calls and I told him that he said I should join them to collect people’s cars and I could not do such a thing as a security man who was well known in the area. The Police later arrested me and I told them that I had resigned from armed robbery but I could still lead them to those who were still doing the job.

    “I met Kazeem, Alfa, Sharpman and Afeez about one and a half years ago. I had once followed them to snatch a car, but the car had an accident, which led to their arrest. They were charged to court and sent to Ikoyi Prison. I ran to Ugheli in Delta State and stayed with a tailor friend named Tony for some time. I came back when my wife gave birth to a baby boy. I resigned from armed robbery job and faced private security work at Mowanla land.

    “So, tell them that I am innocent because I did not participate in this case. The Police declared me wanted when they charged my colleagues then. How can I be arrested because I was once an armed robber? I have repented. Let them release me.”

    The sixth suspect, Femi Ashiru (36), said he was a car dealer with his stand, FM Motors, in Ikorodu, Lagos State.

    He said: “I have an auto stand at Ikorodu. It is called FM Motors. I reside at Igbogbo Bayoku Road, Ikorodu.”

    Asked how he got his supplies, he said: “I do go to Cotonou to buy vehicles and resell in Nigeria. My sister, Mrs Dupe Fakua, who is based in France, also sends cars to me to sell.”

    On when he started patronising car snatchers and armed robbers, he said: “I met Sharpman, Afeez and Ibrahim through a guy called Wale Polo, who is in detention right now for selling and receiving stolen cars from Sharpman. I knew Sharpman as a panel beater also.

    One day, he told me that a customer for whom he normally repaired cars used to bring cars for sale and they were very cheap. I told him that if it was the kind I liked, I would buy. He later brought one RAV4 jeep and I looked at the vehicle, tested it and found it okay. I paid him N450,000.

    “There were documents in the vehicle. The particulars were pasted on the windscreen. The insurance and road worthiness papers were all originals while other documents were in photocopies. He promised to bring the original copies of those ones later.

    “He also brought a 4Runner and I paid him N700,000, though it had no registration number or vehicle particulars. But he said it was not snatched. Another one he brought was a Toyota Camry car and I paid him N450,000. He later brought a Hyundai Santate jeep and I paid him N650,000.

    “He also brought a Toyota Camry 2010 model and I paid him N950,000. Although that one had no particulars, he assured me that it was genuine. He later confessed to me that the Camry 2010 model was snatched. Therefore, when he brought a Highlander Jeep, I refused to buy it. I told him to take it away, but instead of taking it away, he went and parked it at my house and said he would remove it later. He covered it with tarpaulin.

    “When policemen arrested me in my office, I told them on our way to the police station that there was one jeep that was parked in my house, which I had told them to come and take away but they refused, and I could not report them to the police because they are dangerous with guns.”

    He said he later took the police to Sharpman, the supplier of the vehicles’ house and he was arrested in his house at Agufoye area, a new site in Ikorodu. He was the only member of the gang he claimed to know.

     

  • We operated with master keys and fake guns —Suspected robbery gang members

    We operated with master keys and fake guns —Suspected robbery gang members

    THE Lagos State Police Command has smashed a suspected robbery gang made up of panel beaters, drivers, car dealers, native doctors, private security men, auto mechanics, landlords, fake pastors and businessmen without fixed business addresses.

    Suspected members of the gang arrested by the police include Seyi Oyewale, Saheed Adebayo, Isa Adegbenro, Kayode Quadri, Afeez Ibrahim and Femi Ashiru. Others, including one Kazeem a.k.a. Naira and Alaba were said to be at large.

    Narrating his role in the series of robbery operations they allegedly carried out before their arrest, one of the suspects, Afeez Ibrahim a.k.a. Sharpman, a 35-year-old indigene of Odogbolu town, Ogun State said: “I am a panel beater. I was doing well in my job before I met Femi Ashiru (one of the suspects in police net).

    “I made so much money that I built a house of my own. I was contented with the money I made on a daily basis. I worked seven days in a week. The moment Femi came into my life, my character changed. I started lying to my customers. At times, I deliberately destroyed a part of a car and collected money from the owner to buy a tokunbo (fairly used) part to replace it.

    “At times, some customers would give me their cars to work on but Femi would advise me to sell it. He later started supplying me cars and jeeps snatched by his gang to sell. I became a receiver of stolen or vehicles.

    “Unfortunately, the new business I found myself doing dragged me into a lot of police cases. This affected my job as a panel beater. Hence, I abandoned the job and sold my house and other belongings in order to survive. When life became too difficult for me, I joined the gang and started going to robbery operations with them.”

    Asked how many vehicles he received from Femi before joining the gang, he said: “It was the devil that made me an armed robber and receiver of stolen cars. Somebody in our village made the charm against me to become a criminal. What happened to me was not ordinary. I was doing well but suddenly, I became a liar, cheating my customers. I became a receiver of stolen goods and eventually joined the gang.

    “In fact, I joined two gangs. The vehicles I received included Toyota Camry, which I sold for N200,000, and Toyota Muscle, which I sold for N600,000. I also received a 4-Runner Jeep from Kazeem and resold it for N450,000. My gain here was N50,000. Kazeem, known also as Baba Ope or Naira, is still at large.

    “I also sold a Toyota Highlander for N500,000 and gave the money to Kazeem, but till date, he did not give me a dime. He promised to give me the balance when I brought another car. I later brought a Hyundai and he gave me N30,000 only. I gave him a Rav4 which was sold for N350,000, but I was given only N20,000.

    Asked how he was arrested, he said: “Femi was first arrested by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command. He led them to my house and they saw me and arrested me.”

    The second suspect, Seye Oyewale a.k.a. Sheyi Campus (27), who hails from Osogbo, Osun State, said: “I am happily married with a set of twins. I was a member of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) before I became an armed robber. But we don’t use real guns. We operated with fake guns and master keys.”

    Explaining how he joined a robbery gang, he said: “I was called by one guy called Alaba to follow him to Ifako Ijaiye area (Lagos) to rob in November last year. We were three in number, namely myself, Isa Adegbenro from Ogun State and Alaba. I reside at No. 5, Adara Martin Street, Agbelekale area, Oke-Odo.

    “When we reached Ifako at about 9 pm, we collected a Toyota Camry car parked by the road side. When the owner saw us and came to stop us, I used the fake gun to scare him away and zoomed off with his car. The man was forced out of the car and Isa drove it. We took the car to Afeez Ibrahim and he paid N150,000. I was given only N30,000 when the money was shared.

    “The second operation occurred at Oko-Oba Road. We snatched a Toyota Muscle car. The owner left the key at the ignition and went to buy something nearby. We took it to Afeez and collected N400,000, but I was not given a dime for my efforts. Isa gave the whole N400,000 to Afeez.

    “When I confronted Isa, he told me that Alaba collected my money for me. Alaba is still at large. Alaba is the gang leader and we operate at the Oko-Oba axis in Lagos.

    “I was the one who sold a Samsung handset to Sunday for N3,000. He was our regular handset buyer and receiver, but he did not follow us to operations. We heard that he had been charged to court because he was using the handset he bought from me and SARS operatives tracked him down.”

    The third suspect, Kayode Quadri (37), an indigene of Ilorin, Kwara State and resident of Oke Otauna, Ikorodu, said he was a driver at a secondary school in Otauna on a monthly salary of N25,000 before he joined the robbery gang.

    He said: “I joined the robbery gang because my salary was too poor. How can I manage N25,000? if I were a commercial bus driver or trailer driver, I would be getting more than N50,000 every month. If you see the insult I receive from teachers as school driver, you would pity me.

    “When I joined the gang, my role was to drive them to points of operation and bring them back. I still go to school to drive, depending on the time we fixed our robbery operation.”

    On how he joined the suspects, he said: “I know Saidi, Naira and Sharpman. We used to smoke Indian hemp at the same joint. One Sunday, I followed Sharpman and Naira to do one job (armed robbery) at Adama side, Ikorodu. I was their driver.

    “After robbing some people we had met on the road, we saw one man in a Toyota Highlander and stopped him, drove him away and zoomed off with his car. I was not paid a dime until I was arrested by operatives of SARS. That happened this January.

    “We drove a Honda Civic car to the robbery scene and snatched the Highlander. Afeez was both the receiver and one of the strikers. I was not given a dime because they told me that the Highlander jeep had not been sold. I was told that they were going to snatch a vehicle before I joined them. So, I was not forced to become a part of the action.”

    The fourth suspect, Isa Adegbenro a (27) from Abeokuta, Ogun State, who resides at 25, Musiliu Street, Agege, said he was an auto mechanic and driver. He said: “I am happily married with two children. I live in Oko Oba. SARS operatives arrested Seye and they used him to arrest me. I don’t know these people. They belong to another gang entirely. I belong to Alaba’s gang, though the police has not arrested Alaba. He is still our great gang leader.

    “Other members of our gang are Seye and Isa. We are a three-man gang and we operate around the Oko-Oba axis. There was a time we snatched a Toyota Camry and sold it for N150,000 to Afeez. I got only N35,000. We also snatched an ‘Orobo’ Toyota Camry, the one they call Toyota Muscle, and sold it for N400,000. I got N100,000.

    “I had my workshop at Pleasure Bus stop area, very close to Ile-Epo market before the owners of the land demolished our workshop and built a residential building and shops there. When I was chased away from there, I had no alternative but to join this gang in order to survive.

    “I vow that I will never operate with real gun because I had no intention of killing my victims. We used to use master keys and fake guns. Alaba is the gang leader and he does not use a gun. He uses master keys.

    The fifth suspect, 27-year-old Saidi Adebayo, who hails from Itamaga village, Ikorodu Lagos State, is married with a nine-month old baby. He said: “I am a plumber. I also dig borehole. I was on a playground in Itamaga area one evening when Kazeem came to meet me. He asked why I had decided to suffer like my father who did security work, because I was doing a security job at Mowonla.

    “It was there that I knew Kazeem, Afeez and Quadri, a wonderful native doctor. They asked me to follow them to go and do one work. I asked them what work but they said they would tell me the next day. They only said it was a job that would give me quick big money. The next day, he told me that the job was about collecting vehicles from people. I left in anger. He later called me on the phone but I refused to pick his call.

    “He came later and asked why I refused to pick his calls and I told him that he said I should join them to collect people’s cars and I could not do such a thing as a security man who was well known in the area. The Police later arrested me and I told them that I had resigned from armed robbery but I could still lead them to those who were still doing the job.

    “I met Kazeem, Alfa, Sharpman and Afeez about one and a half years ago. I had once followed them to snatch a car, but the car had an accident, which led to their arrest. They were charged to court and sent to Ikoyi Prison. I ran to Ugheli in Delta State and stayed with a tailor friend named Tony for some time. I came back when my wife gave birth to a baby boy. I resigned from armed robbery job and faced private security work at Mowanla land.

    “So, tell them that I am innocent because I did not participate in this case. The police declared me wanted when they charged my colleagues then. How can I be arrested because I was once an armed robber? I have repented. Let them release me.”

    The sixth suspect, Femi Ashiru (36), said he was a car dealer with his stand, FM Motors, in Ikorodu, Lagos State.

    He said: “I have an auto stand at Ikorodu. It is called FM Motors. I reside at Igbogbo Bayoku Road, Ikorodu.”

    Asked how he got his supplies, he said: “I do go to Cotonou to buy vehicles and resell in Nigeria. My sister, Mrs Dupe Fakua, who based in France, also sends cars to me to sell.”

    On when he started patronising car snatchers and armed robbers, he said: “I met Sharpman, Afeez and Ibrahim through a guy called Wale Polo, who is in detention right now for selling and receiving stolen cars from Sharpman. I knew Sharpman as a panel beater also.

    One day, he told me that a customer for whom he normally repaired cars used to bring cars for sale and they were very cheap. I told him that if it was the kind I liked, I would buy. He later brought one RAV4 jeep and I looked at the vehicle, tested it and found it okay. I paid him N450,000.

    “There were documents in the vehicle. The particulars were pasted on the windscreen. The insurance and road worthiness papers were all originals while other documents were in photocopies. He promised to bring the original copies of those ones later.

    “He also brought a 4Runner and I paid him N700,000, though it had no registration number or vehicle particulars. But he said it was not snatched. Another one he brought was a Toyota Camry car and I paid him N450,000. He later brought a Hyundai Santate jeep and I paid him N650,000.

    “He also brought a Toyota Camry 2010 model and I paid him N950,000. Although that one had no particulars, he assured me that it was genuine. He later confessed to me that the Camry 2010 model was snatched. Therefore, when he brought a Highlander Jeep, I refused to buy it. I told him to take it away, but instead of taking it away, he went and parked it at my house and said he would remove it later. He covered it with tarpaulin.

    “When policemen arrested me in my office, I told them on our way to the police station that there was one jeep that was parked in my house, which I had told them to come and take away but they refused, and I could not report them to the police because they are dangerous with guns.”

    He said he later took the police to Sharpman, the supplier of the vehicles’ house and he was arrested in his house at Agufoye area, a new site in Ikorodu. He was the only member of the gang he claimed to know.

     

  • ‘I arranged the kidnapping of my ex-boss’s wife for vengeance, not for money’

    ‘I arranged the kidnapping of my ex-boss’s wife for vengeance, not for money’

    An alleged sponsor and leader of a seven-man kidnapping gang, Chukwunonso Ejike (34) has confessed that he formed the gang in order to take a revenge on his boss and relation named Tony (not real name) for allegedly jeering at him when his child died. Narrating an incident that transpired between him and his boss, the indigene of Ekwulobia, Aguata Local Government Area, Anambra State said: “I worked in his (boss’s) company between 2004 and 2007. The woman I later married was also working in the same company as a sales representative. She later became the best sales representative in the company because she was hardworking and she generated millions of naira for the company every week.

    “She was later given an official car and her salary was raised to N90,000 per month. At the end of 2007, my boss settled me with N250,000. I later travelled to China on a business trip. I spent four years in China but was later deported to Nigeria because my visa expired. When I got back to Nigeria, I started my own company. I became an importer of jewellery.

    “Returning from China after four years of leaving Tony’s company, I thought it wise to marry the woman I loved and had worked with before I travelled abroad. I did not know that the marriage would ignite hatred from my boss. My wife is the kind of woman every man would like to have because of her beauty, intelligence and hard work. My boss became jealous and started insulting her.

    “At times he would bark at her, asking her why she did not see any other man to marry than me. He called me all sorts of degrading names like ‘never-do-well’ and ‘deportee’.

    “My wife later got pregnant but lost the pregnancy in the second month, which to me was spiritual. When she took in again, the baby died in her womb. I had already accepted the loss of my babies as the will of God or a natural thing when I heard that my boss, who is equally my relation, was making jest of me and celebrating the death of my children, saying my wife and I thought that without us, his company would fold up.

    “To add insult to injury, the company’s management collected her car and pushed her out of the company without a sack letter. It was two weeks after she was pushed out of the company that the baby died in her womb.

    “I felt bad about the way my wife was pushed out, having worked for the company for eight years and making sales between N10 million and N11 million every month. A person who is working hard and bringing in millions of naira monthly would most likely record bad debts. There was a time she complained that one of her customers ran away with N500,000.

    “Her monthly salary was N90,000, but there was no month she received up to that amount as salary. At times, she was given N26,000 as salary. She never received her basic salary since she started working there.

    “When the man started his evil plans against my family, the company’s lawyer wrote a nonsense letter that my wife was indebted to the company to the tune of N3.2 million. Eight years is long enough to get such amount as bad debt, because my wife generated millions of naira for the company

  • ‘Why we arranged our bosses’ kidnap’

    ‘Why we arranged our bosses’ kidnap’

    THREE members of a six-man kidnapping gang allegedly used by a private driver to abduct his madam are now guests of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command.

    Narrating how Wahab allegedly used the gang to kidnap the woman, one of the suspects, Rasheed Ramon, a 30-year-old indigene of Oyo town, said: “I know Mohammed very well as a street friend. We were street boys. Ahmed is a carpenter on Lagos Island. He called me on the phone and said Wahab had given him a job to kidnap his (Wahab’s) boss.

    “Wahab was a driver to the woman. He was sacked and he became a commercial bus driver. He said he would pay me good money.

    “So, sometime in November 2012, six of us, namely Ramond, Rasheed, Ahmed Salau, Lekan, Agbenu, Ahmed Ajanu and Wahab, went to Awoyaya, after Ajah, a suburb of Lagos.

    “The victim deals in designer clothes. Ahmed called the woman and told her that she wanted to give her a job. When the woman arrived at Awoyaya, Ahmed kidnapped her. All of us assisted Ahmed because we came out from where we were hiding and pointed a gun at the woman.

    “Although Wahab used to be the woman’s private driver, on that fateful day, the woman drove herself to the scene of the incident. I wanted to tie the woman’s face with a red cloth but they advised me to leave her like that so that she would not die of shock if she mistook us for ritualists. They said it was better for her to see what we were doing so that she would not develop hypertension, which could result in stroke or sudden death.”

    The second suspect, Olalekan Apena (28), a native of Epe, a suburb of Lagos, said: “I am a private driver to a woman. To be a driver to a woman is the worst job, no matter how much you are paid. Not only will you not be paid well, you will be treated like a houseboy, an errand boy and a rag.

    “It was Wahab who opened our eyes to how to pay back women who treat us as slaves. There are two kidnap cases here. The first one was organised by Wahab to kidnap his madam. The second operation was organised by me, but it was in the same area, the same method and the same hideout.

    “Ahmed Ajanu organised the kidnap of Mrs Owoduni Bukky. She is an insurance worker. She is my madam. I drive her every day and she pays me N30,000 monthly with no free accommodation or feeding.

    “I am a mere domestic driver to her. She uses me as she likes. Even to go to market, she would call me to drive her. She would ask me to carry anything she bought to the car. I alone would do the loading and offloading. I work for her from 6 am to 10 pm.

    “I was the one who brought the job. I told Raymond to kidnap my madam and I revealed to him that her husband has a lot of money but both of them are very stingy. Any time I begged them for money, they refused, even when I had pressing problems.

    “To show you how heartless they are, the woman travelled abroad one time and the husband drove me away from the house. He told me to go and do something to help myself since his wife had travelled abroad and would stay for more than one month. He said I would not be paid anything for the period she would not be around. I had to find my way to keep body and soul together. That led me to go to the place where I started driving caterpillar.

    “Although I was paid N30,000 monthly for driving caterpillar, the pains my body experienced are worrying me till today. There was no way the woman cared to help me as her private driver. She does not even pick my calls whenever I call her for financial assistance, knowing full well that her husband has a lot of money.

    “On that fateful day, Ahmed called the woman on the phone and said there was a job he wanted to give her, which would yield millions of naira. When she came, Ahmed told her to wait for the men who would give her the job. When the men arrived, they turned out to be kidnappers who held her and forced her to follow them to Ebowo area, a community in Ogun State.

    “Ahmed later called the husband with the woman’s phone. The husband brought two point something million naira. We later released the woman and shared the ransom. I got N300,000, Rasheed Ramoni got N400,000, Ahmed Salau got N300,000. I lent them N40,000 earlier for mobilisation, which they refunded.

    “It was along Ijebu-Ode Road that they dropped the money for us to pick. The second kidnapping job was brought by Wahab. He is a private driver to a woman. It was the same system we used because it was the same gang that did the job. Knowing that the victim deals in cakes and meat pie, Ahmed called her and told her that there was work for her.

    “When she came, all of us came out and Ramon showed her a gun and told her to comply with our instructions. It was Olalekan who took over the woman’s steering and we drove to Ibowo side and dumped the woman in a bush.

    “We spread a mat for her after clearing the bush to make the place neat. She refused to eat the delicious food we bought for her, thinking that we wanted to drug her.

    “When Ahmed contacted her husband on the phone that night, he said he would call us in the morning. After two hours, we suspected that keeping his response till morning might be a ploy to contact the police to arrest us despite the warning issued to him not to contact the police if he wanted to see his wife alive. In order to avoid any surprise attack from the police, we decided to relocate to a place unknown to her husband.

    “As we started to move out of the place, the vigilance men on duty saw us and suspected us. When they asked us to identify ourselves, the woman shouted: “They are kidnappers! Save me! They have a gun! As she was shouting, the vigilance men locked the tube and tyre, making the car to be motionless. Before we knew it, three of my members had dashed into the bush and disappeared. Those of us who could not escape were arrested and handed over to the police in Epe and later to Akodo Police Station before we were later transferred to SARS. SARS operatives later arrested Olalekan.

    “It was by the grace of God that I survived the beatings from vigilance men. I did not know that I would survive because they beat Ramon and I like antelopes who had missed their way. They used iron and hard wood to hit us all over the body, not minding whether we would die or not. We were bleeding profusely before they handed us over to the police.”

    The third suspect, Olalekan Apena (27), said it was only one operation that he participated in. Said he: “We were six in number. When the woman shouted that we were kidnappers, I knew that the vigilance men would come after us and could slaughter all of us if we allowed them to capture us. As she was shouting, I jumped out of the car into the bush and ran for my dear life.

    “Unfortunately, my colleagues who were arrested were handed over to SARS. I became afraid and did not know where to run to. I was arrested in my house after I had spent three days at Awoyaya”.

     

  • Furore in Anambra community over alleged killing

    Furore in Anambra community over alleged killing

    There are fears that Obosi Community in Idemili North Local Government Area, Anambra State may witness a renewed orgy of violence, following the gruesome killing of a 25-year-old indigene of the town, Obiesie Anekwu a.k.a. Omola, on December 5, 2012.

    The community, which shares a boundary with the commercial city of Onitsha, has lately witnessed wanton destruction of property worth billions of naira in different clashes involving factional groups. Besides, many of the indigenes, particularly the youth, have been killed or injured.

    While the police in the state are yet to make any arrest, more intriguing is the fact that the late Omola’s father, Ikechukwu Anekwu, is the chairman of the Oliobi family in Obosi.

    The late Omola, a graduate of Estate Management of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Enugu Campus, was waiting for his call-up letter from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) before the dastardly act.

    A petition from the family lawyer, M.O Izugbo, sent to the Director General of State Security Service (SSS), President Goodluck Jonathan and the Inspector General of Police, alleged that the SSS in the state had a hand in Omola’s death. Copies of the petition were also sent to the National Security Adviser, the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

    The petition, dated December 13, 2012 is titled ‘Murder, attempted murder, assault occasioning harm and malicious damage to properties.

    It was also alleged that the deceased was in custody of an AK-47 rifle the Obosi youths had seized from their Nkpor counterparts during their clash in 2011 and that the gun was being used in terrorising people.

    The deceased was alleged to have been waylaid and killed while taking his mother to work in the family’s red RAV4 SUV. His mother was also said to have been seriously wounded.

    The petition stated: “While they (Omola and mother) were on their way, some people trailed Obiesie and our client’s wife.

    “They started shooting at the Toyota RAV4 jeep in which they were travelling. When the jeep got to Nkpor junction, some people who were armed and on a motorcycle double-crossed the RAV4 jeep and forced it to stop. The people shot directly into the jeep and hit Obiesie and his mother who were already badly injured by gunshots.

    “They later took him away, still alive, in an SSS Hilux pick-up (van), abandoning our client’s wife with the battered RAV4 jeep. Obiesie was later killed. Our client’s wife is in the hospital, receiving treatment.

    “We therefore implore you to step in and investigate this matter thoroughly… No one is above the law in Nigeria. We therefore demand that all those involved in this extra-judicial killing and injury occasioning grievous harm be arrested forthwith and interrogated.”

    Eralier, a similar petition dated November 19, 2012 had been written to the Assistant Inspector General of police, Zone 9, Umuahia. It was signed by F.S Nwosu Esq, on behalf of Chief J.O. Nso and co. It was titled, ‘Willful and unlawful destruction of Dwelling House by law enforcement officers, threat of arson and more destruction, call for your intervention’.

    However, the Director of SSS in Anambra State, Alex Okiyi, told The Nation that the problem in Obosi was that of lawlessness where the people wanted to be their own lords. He said the mention of SSS in the killing of Omola was pure blackmail, alleging that the deceased was a known cultist.

    Okiyi said: “I came to work in Anambra State without fear or favour. Obosi people should stop grooming armed robbers and kidnappers if they want peace.”

    He said whether the people liked it or not, security agencies in the state were determined to sanitise the community. But he swore that there was no list of youths made available to the state command for elimination as being claimed in some quarters, adding that they were all baseless allegations against his office.

    The father of the deceased, Ikechukwu Anekwu, who was in tears over the death of his son, told The Nation that the killing of Omola was a heavy blow to the family.

    He said: “When my son was alive, I investigated him to know if actually he was a cultist, but all my investigations proved negative. And he never indulged in any kind of rape in Obosi.

    “We are in a civilised world. This method of jungle justice in Obosi should be stopped. This boy was never allowed to defend himself because some people were afraid he might expose them.”

    He warned that if nothing is done urgently by both the state and federal governments, Obosi community would soon become extinct.