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The unholy transition from thuggery to robbery
In this concluding part of the series on the growing menace of political thugs in the country, KUNLE AKINRINADE highlights recent cases in which political thugs are involved in robbery, arson and kidnapping, among other crimes.
Omoniyi Ajewole looked sullen on July 8, 2014 as he filed out with eight other members of his gang while they were being paraded by the police at the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad’s (FSARS) office, Adeniji Adele, Lagos. Before he found himself inside police net, he had led his men on series of robbery operations across the country, unleashing terror on their victims and living on the spoils of their operations.
His robbery gang comprised Oluseye Jacob, Oluwadamiliare Rasaki, Ajisafe Olawale, Ogunniyi Sunday, Tolani Babatunde, Abubakar Umar, Odeyemi Itunnu and Ayodeji Olumudi.
The gang, however, met their waterloo shortly after they robbed a victim of two vehicles and other valuables on June 27, 2013, at his Ile-Ife, Osun State residence.
Recovered from the gang were 17 posh cars including a Toyota Highlander SUV model 2008 with registration number GWA-489-BC; one Toyota Matrix car (2007 model) with registration number RSH-196-DA; one Toyota RAV-4 Jeep with registration number EPE-477-AC; two unregistered Toyota Highlander SUV; two unregistered Toyota Saloon cars (2012 model); one unregistered Toyota Camry (2009 model); one Toyota Avensis Saloon car with registration number EKY-989-AX; one Mercedes Benz E-Class 350 Series with registration number LND-919-EC; one Honda Accord Coupe car with registration number EKY-857-CH and one Toyota Camry car with registration number YEN-902-SY.
Others were one Toyota Highlander with registration number GWA-489-BC; one Toyota Camry with registration number AKD-882-AC; one unregistered Sienna bus and one unregistered Toyota RAV-4 2009 model and other personal belongings of their victims.
Before he took to robbery, the 28-year-old was said to be a notorious political thug of a member of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) in Efon Alaaye area of Ekiti State, Hon. Itunnu Odeyemi, who allegedly gave him a gun in the heat of the elections.
With the 2011 general elections over, Ajewole was left without a job, hence, he allegedly put together a robbery gang and his gang operated with some of the arms given to him by his political godfather, who was also paraded alongside other members of the nine-man gang. Three assorted guns were also recovered from the suspects.
A few days after they were paraded by the police, fresh facts emerged that a member of the gang, Olumudi, was a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and former House of Representatives aspirant in Kogi State in 2011.
In its reaction, APC said it was not only its member that was a suspect. The party alleged that Olumudi, a PDP chieftain, was also involved in the robbery.
Olumudi was identified by the APC in a photograph taken at their parade, following which the party released a statement saying: “While it is not the intention of APC to deny the political affiliation of the said Itunu Odeyemi, who hails from Efon-Alaaye, Ekiti State to the All Progressives Congress (APC), we however wonder why he is the only one so identified and wish to draw your attention to the following:
- That the said Itunu Odeyemi is neither a chieftain, nor a leader in our party. He is a registered member though and we could not have raised any doubt on his integrity, except for his proving otherwise.
- That Itunu Odeyemi, first from the right in the picture displayed, is not the only culprit with political affiliation. We are concerned that a more prominent person among those paraded as robbery suspects is one Ayodeji Olumudi, who is a core member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from Kogi State since 2009. He stands 3rd from left in the picture displayed, putting on a red T- Shirt. The attached picture is from a poster he released when he was contesting for House of Representatives in 2011. This picture is also on his Facebook page with the name (Ayo Olu).”
Like Ajewole, Ayoade Akinnibosun, started out as a political thug in Kwara State. But the money he was allegedly getting from his political godfathers was not enough to quench his thirst for the good things of life. Thus, he organised a robbery gang which in one fell swoop killed about 33 persons during a raid on some commercial banks in the Sanni Aba area of Offa, Kwara State on Thursday April 5, 2018.
A few weeks later, operatives of the Inspector General of Police’s (IGP) special squad, Intelligence Response Team (IRT), led by Mr Abba Kyari, a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), arrested Akinnibosun and 21 other suspects linked to the robbery incident.
According to the Force spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, Akinnibosun, the alleged leader of the robbery gang, said they were political thugs to Senate President Bukola Saraki and Kwara State governor Abdulfatah Ahmed.
Moshood said at a press briefing in Abuja: “The five gang leaders, namely Ayoade Akinnibosun, Ibukunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, Salawudeen Azeez, Niyi Ogundiran and some of the other 17 suspects arrested for direct involvement and active participation in the Offa bank robbery and the gruesome killing of 33 innocent persons, who include some pregnant women and nine police personnel, admitted, confessed and volunteered statements that they were political thugs of the Senate President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Sen. Bukola Saraki, and the Executive Governor of Kwara State, Alh. Abdulfatah Ahmed.
“The five (5) gang leaders further confessed during investigation that they are political thugs under the name Youth Liberation Movement a.k.a. Good Boys admitted and confessed to have been sponsored with firearms, money and operational vehicles by the Senate President, Sen. Bukola Saraki and the Governor of Kwara State, Alh. Abdulfatah Ahmed.”
Both Saraki and Gov Ahmed, however, promptly denied any link with the suspects. The Senate President said he was being implicated because of the Senate’s resolution declaring the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris.
Related cases
Earlier, the Kwara State Police Command on May 11, 2018 paraded six notorious suspected cultists allegedly working for Saraki. The suspects, namely Abolaji Safti Ojulari of Kankatu area, Ilorin; Lanre Mohammed Soliu a.k.a Askari of Ile Nda Compound, Ilorin; Azeez Moyaki of Moyaki Compound, Gambari Area Ilorin; Suleiman Babatunde of Gambari Area, Ilorin; Yusuf Habeeb of Kangile Village, Kulende, Ilorin and Umar Yahaya of Kangile Village, Kulende, Ilorin, were said to have killed 11 innocent persons in Kwara State and other parts of the country.
The suspects have since been transferred to Force Headquarters in Abuja. Saraki and the state government have also distanced themselves from the allegations, faulting the relocation of the suspects to Abuja.
In a related development, the police on March 19, 2018, arrested and paraded two suspected political thugs with two AK-47 and five pump action rifles allegedly working for the lawmaker representing Kogi West senatorial district, Senator Dino Melaye.
At the press briefing held at the Kogi State Police Command, Lokoja, the Force spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, said the suspects, Kabiru Saidu a.k.a. Osama, 31, and Nuhu Salisu a.k.a. Small, 25, were arrested after a gun battle with a police team on January 19.
According to the police, the suspects, who were allegedly armed by Melaye, were behind several robbery and kidnapping cases in Kogi State.
Moshood said: “Working on actionable intelligence, the Kogi State Police Command personnel and Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad, FSARS, trailed and arrested the two suspects after a gun battle with the Police team on January 19 at Ogojueje in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State.
“During investigation, they confessed to several kidnappings and robberies in different towns across the state and its environs for which they have been on the wanted list of the Police for more than two years.
“During interrogation, they further confessed they were political thugs recruited by some mischievous politicians in Kogi to cause mayhem, disruption of peace, and destruction of lives and property in the state.”
Moshood added: “They also confessed to belong to the gang of a dreaded and vicious kidnap-for-ransom gang under a gang leader whose whereabouts is being investigated. “According to the gang leader, Kabiru Saidu, he has been working as a political thug for a politician, who introduced him to Senator Dino Melaye and they met at Airport Road, Abuja inside Senator Melaye’s car in December 2017″.
Senator Melaye, however, denied any link with the suspects, saying that his alleged link with them was masterminded by the state governor, Yahaya Bello, with whom he had a sour relationship.
How thugs work for politicians
In Nigeria, election periods are war-like as politicians arm and sponsor youths as political thugs to attack rivals and ensure their victory through foul means at the polls.
The thugs usually mill around their political benefactors and constitute a standing hit squad to harass or kill those opposed to their principals. But a common feature of this episode is that the arms purchased by politicians for their thugs are not returned by the time elections are over and these weapons are used to commit crimes, including robbery, kidnapping and assassination, among others.
Akinnibosun, who sang like a canary while he was being paraded in Abuja alongside other suspects, claimed he worked for the state government and Senate President Bukola Saraki.
Speaking with reporters at the parade on Sunday June 3, 2018, Akinnibosun said: “I am the chairman of Liberation Youths Movement, Kwara South. My involvement with the Senate President is that we’re his boys; we work for him at Kwara South. We’re the ones that hold Kwara South for him. We’ve been working for him since he was Governor of Kwara.
“We mobilise and do political arrangement there (Kwara South). For example, where we can’t win, we makedabaru (disrupt) arrangement there; we scatter elections if we don’t win.
“The connection between me and the Senate President is, he is the one that is arranging everything for us. For example, this car was given to me by His Excellency through the chief of staff as a gift from the leader Bukola Saraki.
“The Senate President and the Governor of Kwara State, we have been their political thugs. So, that was what encouraged us to do what we are doing (robbery).”
Akinnibosun added that two of the guns found in their possession were given to the gang by the Chief of Staff to Kwara State Governor.
Saraki has since denied any complicity in the robbery incident via his response to the police authorities.
On his part, Ajewole had said: “He gave me the gun to use in protecting him during any campaign violence. I was the only one the Honourable (Odeyemi) gave a gun and he was also paying me salaries.
“But I had not yet used the gun before I was arrested in September 2013. I am not a robber.O deyemi, however, denied asking him to use the gun for robbery.”
While Odeyemi admitted giving Ajewole a gun to protect him, he said: “Actually, I have never participated in any robbery operation. But he used to escort me with the gun. All of us who are chieftains were given slots in the state and we were working for the state government.
“Every political party, including ours, has factions. That was why I gave him the gun so that he could always protect me wherever I went. I also told him to be with me, particularly as the Ekiti election then was approaching.
“But before the elections, I just saw the police coming to my house to arrest me. I had seen the gun on the ground during the 2007 elections violence in the state and had kept it.”
The burning down of the Ido/Osi Local Government office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Ekiti State, and attacks on some residential buildings in the 2009 governorship rerun election are typical examples of how political thugs use violence to disrupt electoral process and run opponents of their masters out of relevance.
It will be recalled that during the Ekiti rerun, many journalists and INEC officials were also attacked and wounded by political thugs.
One Charles Ojo Ovie, who had worked as a thug for politicians, was arrested in 2010 and was believed to be the mastermind of criminals who kidnapped the immediate past Attah of Ayede, Oba Joseph Adeleye Orisagbemi in Ilawe- Ekiti, but the vehicle in which the monarch and other victims were being conveyed crashed somewhere in Kogi State, leading to the death of the victims.
Ojo, in his confessional statement to the police, also admitted involvement in high-profile crimes like killings, robberies, kidnappings, arsons and other forms of violence
Ex-militants turn political thugs
In recent times, several ex-militants in the Niger Delta region have been linked to political thugery as a result of being inactive, following the Amnesty Programme of the Federal Government.
Some of the former militants have been working as bodyguards and security escorts for top politicians in the region and are being used to tackle the opponents of their paymasters.
For instance, members of the Bakassi Volunteer Force in Cross River State worked as political thugs to politicians and participated in several clashes involving their principals and rivals.
A recent report linked ex-militants turned political thugs to clashes in Asari Eso area of the state over the choice of candidates for federal legislative house in Abuja. Four of the suspected ex-militants involved in the clashes were arrested by policemen at the scenes.
In Edo State, several ex-militants have been spotted working for top politicians in areas such as Ikpoba, Ovia North East and Ovia South West, and even have a voice in who becomes what in the political arena.
In Rivers State, several cult groups have been linked to electoral violence and politically-motivated killings in recent past. For instance, one Ephraim Bara, the leader of the Iceland cult gang and a staunch supporter of the PDP, was alleged to have led his gang to unleash violence on perceived supporters of rival political parties during the April 11, 2015 governorship election in the state.
Other political thugs fingered in the electoral violence were said to have links with a former ruling party in the state-APC.
Testifying before the Rivers State Election Petitions Tribunal, headed by Justice Suleman Ambrosa, shortly after the election, one of the operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) who monitored the election, Godwin Mba, indicted cult groups who he said acted as thugs spearheaded the violence and destruction that marred the smooth conduct of the poll.
Mba, who was on duty at Andoni Local Government Area said cultists and political thugs actively displayed their support for PDP throughout the duration of the conduct of the election.
He said: “By my own assessment, the April 11 governorship election was characterised by violence, intimidation, harassment and irregularities. This is so because the thugs created an atmosphere of tension and some persons who had wanted to vote stayed away. Even the ad hoc staff had to run for safety.
“Let me say that shortly after voting commenced, we started receiving reports of hijack of electoral materials by a cult group known as Icelanders. At Ngo Ward 1, materials meant for the election were carted away. At Ward 2, materials meant for the ward was also hijacked by the same group. At Ward 6, we received news of voter intimidation, particularly those perceived to be members of other parties apart from the PDP.
“At a point, voters could not come out to vote for fear of harassment and intimidation. We did our investigation and discovered that the cult groups worked for PDP. The same situation prevailed in other wards and units, and this adversely affected the electoral process. And in the course of our work, we also observed the absence of result sheets at wards 4, 6, 7 and 9.”
Another SSS operative, Benson Chukwuma, echoed Mba’s remarks saying that violence characterised the election in Ogu-Bolo Local Government Area of the state, where he served.
“On the eve of the election, we did our patrol round the local government to make our presence felt. Then in the morning, distribution of materials commenced. After accreditation which was done manually, voting started. Then suddenly, one of my colleagues told me that there were threat indicators by unidentified thugs moving from place to place.
“At Ward 9, Unit 6 and 8, attempts were made to cart away electoral materials but it was resisted by the police and ad hoc staff. Later, a card reader was snatched. The same thing happened at other wards and units. Then they removed original result sheets in three units.
“As soon as this happened, the violence started spreading in all the wards. The police were helpless and then I quickly contacted the military. But before then, we had noticed that the INEC and ad hoc staff were threatened and scared. They felt so intimidated that they had to carry their materials to a common place to avoid being lynched.
“It was in this state of confusion at the local government secretariat that those who announced the result arrived at the figure they declared for the House of Assembly and governorship.
“In a nutshell, the election was marked by intimidation, snatching of electoral materials which did not give room to smooth conduct of the election. There was also no collation. If there was collation at all, there should be members of other political parties in attendance, but it was not so”.
How to eliminate thuggery, by experts
The Federal Government must develop adequate measures to discourage politicians from arming youths to serve as political thugs, experts have said.
A former Minister of Science and Technology, General Sam Momah, urged the Federal Government to prosecute politicians found sponsoring armed political thugs.
According to General Momah, such could only lead to evil grooming of the youth and supporting of illegal groupings and rebellion against constituted authority.
Citing the Boko Haram and Niger Delta militancy as the offshoot of armed political thuggery, Momah said:
“Enough is enough. The Federal Government must put a stop to the arming of thugs by politicians. The Federal Government should make sure that those who are guilty face the full wrath of the law by prosecuting culprits.”
Also speaking on the issue, a security expert and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of August Eye Security Services Limited, Mr Okhidievbie Oamien Roy, noted that politicians that took over from the military regime had adopted the antics of violence to oppress rivals.
“Immediately the power of the gun was transferred to the power of votes, it became a confusing reality that they (politicians) kept the stigma of oppression and violence against one another and bloodletting.
“They armed thugs and formed militant groups. They encouraged youths from their constituencies to violate laws and upturn the judicial authority. They also fuelled cultism in higher institutions and so on.
“I expected that they would have reviewed the mind set of these thugs and ensured that their energies are channelled towards productivity rather than leave them to their own pranks.
“Armed robbery is armed robbery. Every crime must be treated separately and the rule of law must be strengthened to match the corruption of the political parties. Once our judicial process and system gets it right, all forms of criminal breaches will be aligned with the law and penalties accrue, then we shall begin to sanitise this country.”
On his part, Colonel David Binitie (rtd) declared that there was no provision for any other person apart from security agents to bear arms in the country. “And when I say security agents, I mean the military, police and paramilitary. These are the only set of people that are legally expected to be in possessions of arms.
“It is strange that somebody who wants to go to government to serve his people should become so desperate as to carry thugs about, fighting and hurting just because he wants to serve people,” said Captain Mohammed (rtd).
“I do not think such a person would have good intentions when he gets to power.
“Initially, the thugs hired by these politicians were carrying sticks. But when their godfathers made money from government, they began to arm them with guns and ammunition in readiness for the next elections. Meanwhile the godfathers in government soon find no need for them, and the thugs who have no access to free cash anymore, decide to use their guns to intimidate their common neighbours and rob banks. They attack innocent people and become full time robbers.
“I am surprised that the situation has got this bad, because what happens is that even when the police arrest these thugs, their godfathers go with money to the police and bail them. The Federal Government should put a stop to that.
“The government should equip the police force and flush out the bad eggs too. The police should not be afraid of politicians. They should do their job. And more importantly, the Federal Fovernment should, as a matter of urgency, ban thuggery in the country.
“No politician should have hoodlums around them. Any politician who has hoodlums around him should be suspect. And any hoodlum or area boy or thug should be arrested.”
