11 trans-border armed robbers, including their leader, Tokiwe Joseph, aka TK, have been killed by a combined team of security operatives from the Lagos State Police Command, Nigerian Customs, Benin Republic police and hunters, among others, at the Seme Border area.
Briefing the press yesterday, Lagos State Commissioner of Police Fatai Owoseni said: “The robbers were 17. Four of them escaped. Three are in Seme , while 11 died during a gun battle”.
Recovered were the three boats with one castina marine, 22 sticks of dynamite, some explosives, six AK 47 rifles, two general purpose machine guns and 3,678 assorted live bullets.
Also recovered were 28 empty magazines, eight live jackets, jerrycans of fuel, one military jacket and charms.
CP Owoseni revealed that before their arrest, there was a report that they were about to strike and the Nigerian security personnel and that of Benin Republic had been on surveillance at the border.
“On March 16, 2016, the gang emerged from their base and navigated the waterways at about 11pm to the Seme area. When they came out from their boat, they came out in a commando way and opened fire as they were advancing without knowing that the combined team was ready for them.
”They were challenged with superior fire power which made them to flee in different directions,” CP Owoseni said.
The officer in charge of the FSARS, CSP Akinade Adejobi, led the operation with his officers and men, playing the major role of boldly challenging the gang leader said to have killed many policemen and four SSS operatives.
He said the command is doing everything possible to see that the four that escaped and three that are still within the Seme area are caught.