Four suspected members of a robbery gang made up of Chad nationals have been arrested by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command after allegedly carrying out an attack on the Ikoyi, Lagos home of the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore.
A police source told our correspondent that the suspects stormed the senator’s house at No. 11, Thomson Avenue, Ikoyi at about 2 am on June 18, 2014 and used an iron cutter to cut the electrified wire on top of the fence before they jumped into the compound, raping a housemaid and stealing valuable items.
Once they had gained entry, they were said to have bound the two security men that guided the house with ropes and told a member of the gang named Musa to watch over the security guards. With one of the iron cutters in their possession, they cut the burglary proof on the door and gained entry into the house.
They were also said to have pointed a gun at the housemaid and ordered her to undress. The hapless housemaid was said to have been reluctant in carrying out the invaders’ instruction, following which they became angry and beat her mercilessly, tearing her clothe and stripping her naked before assaulting her sexually.
The poor housemaid was said to have been left unconscious by the robbers who also ransacked the rooms. The Senator, who is based in Abuja and currently campaigning for the governorship seat of Osun State, was said not to be at home at the time the robbers struck. A member of his domestic staff was said to have made a distress call to the Ikoyi Police Station whose men responded promptly and got to the house before the invaders could escape.
Noticing the arrival of policemen, the robbers were said to have opened fire to scare them away and facilitate their escape, but the police responded with superior fire power, wounding one of the robbers and arresting him while the three others escaped.
The police were said to have the suspect with bullet wound for treatment, after which he was transferred to SARS on June 19 for discreet investigation. The Commissioner of police, Mr. Umar Manko, was also said to have instructed the officer in charge of SARS, Mr. Abba Kyari, a Superintendent of Police, to ensure that the fleeing suspects did not escape from the state or the country.
Kyari and members of his special squad were said to have swung into action immediately, tracking down one of the suspects named Mohammed at Epe, a suburb of Lagos. Mohammed then led them to the hideout of another member of the gang named Ibrahim Abdulahi.
Upon interrogation, Abdullahi was said to have disclosed that a member of the gang had escaped to Ibafo, an Ogun community not far away from Lagos. He was said to have led some SARS operatives to Ibafo but the suspected member of the gang opened fire on the policemen as they were approaching their hideout. The police again responded with superior fire power and cordoned off the whole area. Unknown to the police team, some other robbers lived in the house and had hid themselves in the ceiling.
Upon entering the house, the policemen notice some strange noise in the ceiling and opened fire on the ceiling, wounding one of them in the process and arresting another without any bullet wound. The one without injury, Jidoh Sale, was immediately put in handcuffs while the one with injury was rushed to the hospital where he gave up the ghost.
A search carried out on the uncompleted building was said to have led to the recovery of three big iron cutters, two red hand gloves, assorted charms, a chisel, a machete, a nail remover, two screw drivers, a torch, three different identity cards, voter ID cards, two Man O’ War ID cards belonging to Mohammed Yusuf and Ali Yawarb, a pen knife, a hammer and two locally made pistols.
Confessing his involvement in the operations of the gang, one of the suspects, Ibrahim Abdullahi, said: “I am 29 years old. I am a foreigner from Amtima village in Chad. I came to Nigeria in 2010 in search of greener pastures. After three months, I secured a security job in a company in Anthony Village (Lagos). After few months, I was sacked and I went to stay with my brother at Ajah, a suburb of Lagos. I later returned to Chad to take a second wife with the little money I had saved from security work.
“My problem started when I came back from Chad and there was no money for me to eat and feed my wives. I was thinking about how to survive when Mohammed Sale, who is still at large over his involvement in several robbery operations in Ajah and its environs, came to me with thousands of naira on him. I saw the money on him and begged him to help me, even if it was with a small amount as loan.
“He promised to help me to get out of my financial problems. But he said he would not give me fish but will take me to the high sea to fish and eat as much fish as I wanted. I told him that a hungry would not understand riddles and that he should speak to me in plain language so that I would understand him. He then asked me to follow him.
“He took me to Senator Omisore’s house, saying that he would put me at the gate. He said that two other people would join us later. He also told me that as soon as the work started, they would tie the two security men in the Senator’s house and that my role was to guard the security men and be the gang’s eyes while they would go inside the house to work.
“At about 10 pm, we went to Obalende area and hid ourselves in the flower. There the two others came to join us. Around 2 am, we trekked to the Senator’s house at No.11, Thomson Avenue Ikoyi, armed with two guns, cutters and charms, among other items.
“When we got to the house, we used a cutter to cut the electrified wire on the fence, climbed the wall and jumped inside the compound. Two dogs wanted to harass us but one of us, Mosale, pursued them. That made the two security men to wake up, as they wondered why the dogs were barking. The dogs continued to bark, showing that there were strangers in the compound, but they did not know what to do. It was while they were thinking of what they would do that Musa and Jidoh used guns to order the two security men to lie down and tied them with ropes. We then went inside the house and ransacked all the rooms.
“We carried clothes, shoes and other things. We only spent 20 minutes. We collected a fine wrist watch and a phone. There were four of us: myself, Mosale, Idris and Mohammed Sale, but I did not join in raping the housemaid. I have two wives and three children. I cannot rape. I only wanted to get money to feed my family.
“If I had got enough money to do business, I would not have been interested in armed robbery. Look at me, I cannot rape. If the housemaid recovers and we go for identification parade, you will see that I am telling you the truth. Not every armed robber is a beast. I don’t take hard drug. I am conscious and mentally alert every day. I don’t drink or smoke too much because it is very risky to lose control of your senses during a robbery operation. So, count me out from those who raped the housemaid.
“Idris and Mohammed are still at large. One of our members died when we exchanged fire with SARS operatives at Ibafo.”
Asked why Chadians enter Nigeria in droves, he said: “Our people come to Nigeria to do one job or the other. Nigeria is our best hope of greener pastures abroad. Some come with their cattle while some come to do security work in private homes and companies.
“About 50 Chadians come to Nigeria every day to do one thing or the other, but half of us engage in armed robbery because Nigerians have many rich people and they keep big money in their cars and in their houses.
“Whatever work we do in Nigeria gives us money with which we do reasonable things like building houses, farming and educating our children. There is a lot of money in Nigeria. Those who engage in armed robbery do so to get quick money and go back to Chad. Some do it because it is faster, but they do not kill their victims unless there is exchange of fire, because they do not carry gun for fun. They carry guns so that they can escape if they are challenged.
“The primary aim of carrying gun is not to kill their victims but to protect themselves and to enable them escape from serious danger during and after operation. Nobody likes to kill his fellow human being just like that.
“If I am released, I will relocate to Chad and do farming and other jobs to feed my family. I will not rob again. It was financial problems that made me to join them to rob. We are all from Chad.”
The second suspect said: “My name is Mohammed Musa. I am 26 years old from Amdam village in Chad Republic.
“When I came to Niegeria some years back, I secured a security job at Living Word Church, Ajah on a monthly salary of N15,000. I was on temporary appointment with the church. When I finished the job, I went to live with Ibrahim at Ajah..
I was facing hard times in Ajah because I had no work. I had no money while Ibrahim was going out to rob and come back with a lot of money and handsets. I became jealous and begged him to allow me to follow him to his money spinning work.
“I was still owing the Igbo man who helped me to cross to Nigeria and get security work in the church. When I was working in the church, he used to help me to get manual jobs that fetched me N1,500 every day, out of which he got a commission of N500. When I left the church, he did not know that I had relocated to Ajah, so he was still calculating the money I was supposed to be giving him every day.
“Later, Ibrahim permitted me to follow him to do armed robbery and I celebrated it. Our gang leader is Mohammed Saleh, who is still at large.”
Asked how he managed to get somebody to help him to cross from Chad to Nigeria without the necessary papers, he said: “If you have the papers, you can cross. But if you don’t have them, is it not somebody who will help you to cross? Money is involved at every step and I did not have the money.
“Even when somebody helps you to cross, getting work and accommodation in Nigeria is not easy because you don’t know the country you are going to very well. You can be arrested for wandering.
“I am not yet married. I had planned to get married after two or three robbery operations but luck was against me. I put my trust charms, not knowing that I would be confronted by SARS operatives. They rendered my charms useless.”
The third suspect, Jidoh Sale, said: “I am 31 years old. I came with cattle from Chad. My wife is in Chad. I was arrested from one room in Ibafo. I have a room there in an uncompleted building. Area boys used to come there to collect money from every tenant. We do not know the landlord of the house till date.
“I know that criminals live in the house. But for me to continue to live there, I have to mind my business. It is highly risky to report criminals to the police when you are living in the same place with them.
“It was Zachariah who came into my room and told me that policemen were everywhere with powerful rifles and that their eyes could scare even a lion, so I decided to run. Unfortunately, I ran into one of the SARS operatives who had a rifle. He ordered me to stop or he would shoot me dead. I fell short of words and fell down in shock.
“I shouted and pleaded with him not to kill me when he told me that I was playing tricks the way I fell down. He came closer to me and ordered another operative at my back to handcuff me and take me to their vehicle, which they parked near the road.
“I know Ibrahim Abdullahi. We entered the ceiling together and jumped down together. We took different directions. I would have escaped if I had followed him.”
Contact for comment, the Media Director, Omisore Campaign Organisation, Mr. Diran Odeyemi confirmed that the robbery took place in June. But he said it had not come to the knowledge of the governorship aspirant that the perpetrators of the act had been arrested.
“You are the one that is just telling us about their arrest,” he told our correspondent on Thursday.
