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.”
