The Nation Newspaper

Tag: RRS

  • Man held for kidnap attempt in Ogun

    Man held for kidnap attempt in Ogun

    •RRS foils abduction of toddler 

    Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested Suleiman Seidu, 33, for attempting to kidnap a two year-old boy, Chimdi Udwu, in Owode , Ogun State.
    This followed an intelligence report by the decoy team of the squad that Seidu contracted two people to help him carry out the operation. A source said for more than two weeks, a member of the team, posing as an accomplice, was exchanging information with the suspect.
    The suspect, it was gathered, assured the accomplice that he had gotten a motorcycle to use for the operation.
    Seidu said the ransom was N10 million, which the parents would be able to afford.
    A RRS informant said: “I knew it was going to boomerang if I conceal the information and not inform the police.
    “Then, I called one of my friends who lives in Lagos and explained the situation to him.
    It was my friend who told me to come to Lagos to inform the RRS, which I eventually came the following day to report the case at its headquarters in Lagos.”
    Seidu, who confessed to the crime, said he wanted to kidnap the boy because his mother was ill.
    In his confessional statement, he said: “I have been on the trail of the boy and his parents. I conceived the idea to kidnap him because my mother is ill and I need money.
    “I wanted to demand for N10 million and if his parents cannot afford it, I can at least get N3million.
    “I just relocated to the area and I am not familiar with it. Then, I thought of contracting someone who knows the environment very well and would make the job easy.
    “I had been watching the movement of the parents for about two weeks.
    “What I devised was to kidnap the boy whenever he is being taken to school and escape on a waiting bike.
    “I planned to keep him with me in my house and threaten his parents.”

  • RRS arrests five suspected robbers

    RRS arrests five suspected robbers

    Rapid Response Squad (RRS) operatives have arrested  five robbery suspects in various parts of the metropolis.

    The suspects were apprehended during a special raid by the operatives on robbers who were attacking and dispossessing members of the public of their valuables in traffic.

    The suspects, Oyeleke Abdullah, 24, Olajide Dipo, 17, Saheed Alayande, 17, Azeez Yusuph, 21 and Oyeniwa Wasiu, 18 were nabbed in Victoria Island, Ojodu Berger, Oshodi, Obalende and Ilubirin.

    RRS said the Commissioner of Police had directed RRS Commander to deploy more operatives to Ojodu Berger, Lekki and Oshodi to curb incidents of in-traffic robberies in those areas.

    It was gathered that some operatives of the RRS’s Decoy Team, in arresting Yusuph, pretended to have had a broken down car under the Ilubirin Bridge around 4:23am.

    “It was very early in the morning when an undercover policeman pretended as if his vehicle broke down on the bridge while some of his colleagues hid somewhere to ambush the robbers who would come and harass the lone occupant of the vehicle.

    The suspect showed up few minutes trying to collect handset and money from him, that was when we arrested him,” RRS source said.

    He hinted that the operatives also got complaints from members of the public on RRS social media platforms about the activities of miscreants on road users with broken down vehicle in Ilubirin.

    Abdullahi, a danfo driver confessed to interrogators: “I was trying to make ends meet by snatching valuables of stranded drivers on the bridge. I sleep underneath the bridge along with his colleagues. I snatched a Zeltel phone from a passenger around 9pm on Saturday. There was traffic entering Lagos on Saturday at Berger, I decided to use that opportunity to snatch handset and other valuables from commuters. My colleague and I do this whenever we need money.”

    Alayande, who was arrested in Oshodi, said that he was a bus conductor in Oshodi. “Whenever I am not doing that, I carry load and wares for people with my friend. It was here that I stole the phone that I was caught with before I was arrested,” he told RRS.

    Police spokesperson Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent (SP) said the command was on high alert to curb social miscreants who exploit traffic situations in the metropolis to dispossess Lagosians of their valuables on the road.

    The suspects, she said, had been transferred to State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Panti, Yaba for further investigation.

  • RRS arrest five traffic robbers in Lagos

    Operatives of the Lagos State Rapid Response Squad (RRS) have arrested five suspected traffic robbers in different areas of the state.

    Oyeleke Abdullah (24), Olajide Dipo (17), Saheed Alayande (17), Azeez Yusuph  (21), and Oyeniwa Wasiu (18) were apprehended at Victoria Island, Ojodu Berger, Oshodi, Obalende and Ilubirin.

    Following complaints from residents of robbery attacks in traffic, RRS sent decoy teams to different areas, who pretended as though their vehicles broke down.

    The Nation gathered that one of the suspects, Yusuph, who was arrested at Ilubirin under bridge around 4:00 a.m., fell for the trick.

    A source said: “It was very early in the morning when an undercover policeman pretended as if his vehicle broke down on the bridge, while some of his colleagues hid somewhere to ambush the robbers, who would come and harass the lone occupant of the vehicle.

    “The suspect showed up few minutes later trying to collect handset and money from him. That was when we arrested him.”

    Confessing to the crime, Abdullahi said: “I was trying to make ends meet by snatching valuables of stranded drivers on the bridge. I sleep underneath the bridge along with my colleagues.”

    Oyeleke, who claimed to be a bus driver, confessed he snatched a mobile phone from a passenger around 9:00 p.m. last Saturday.

    He said: “There was traffic entering Lagos on Saturday at Berger, I decided to use that opportunity to snatch handset and other valuables from commuters. My colleagues and I do this whenever we need money.”

    Alayande said: “I was arrested at Oshodi. I am a bus conductor. Whenever I am not doing that, I carry load and wares for people with my friend. It was here that I stole the phone that I was caught with before I was arrested.”

    The command’s spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent of Police (SP), said they are working to curb social miscreants, who exploit traffic situations in the metropolis to dispossess residents of their valuables.

     

     

  • Four arrested in RRS’ raid of fake embassy

    Four arrested in RRS’ raid of fake embassy

    Rapid Response Squad (RRS) operatives has uncovered a fake embassy and arrested four persons including two Chinese nationals.

    The operatives, led by RRS Commander, Olatunji Disu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) stormed the fake embassy located at Golden Point and Suite Hotel, Duduyemi Street in Ejigbo, after receiving complaints of fraud from victims.

    Items recovered during the raid were 25 international passports, 10 laptops, screw driver, five phones and paper documents.

    The suspects – Liu Honyang, 47, Sun Xinai, 49, Oriyomi Olawale, 47 and Desmond Chinedu, 25 – were said to have conspired and swindled Nigerians who had planned to travel out of the country to seek greener pastures.

    The police were said to have lodged in the hotel for two days monitoring their activities before apprehending them.

    A victim, Adekunle Adefuye, told RRS operatives narrated how he was lured to go to Trinidad and Tobago by the suspects and was later deported.

    He said: “I met these people through one of their agents, Dorcas Slyver. She is a daughter to my brother’s pastor in Abeokuta. I told her my intentions to travel to United States. Then she told me to come to Lagos that she can procure the American visa for me.

    “On getting to Lagos, she took me to these Chinese where I was told that I should go to Trinidad and Tobago. They persuaded me to go to Trinidad and Tobago that it was easier to secure employment with at least 3,000 dollars as salary.

    “Initially, I declined to take their bait, insisting that I preferred America. But in the long run, they brainwashed me into agreeing to go to Trinidad and Tobago. It was at this point, I was told that I would pay N1.3 million for the whole process including visa processing and flight fare.

    “The payment was made in instalment. N376,000 for Visa, ticket, N850,000, accommodation, N39,000 and visa Fee N33,000, which I obliged and paid all the monies into Dorcas’ GTB Accounts: 0130671906.”

    Continuing, the victim said he and another person were rounded up immediately they got to Trinidad and Tobago by the country’s immigration officers for coming into the country with fake visas.

    “We left Lagos en route Lome on October 19. From Lome to Sao Paulo in Brazil. From there, we moved to Panama where we boarded another plane to Trinidad and Tobago. On getting to the country, we were arrested by their security operatives, accusing us of entering their country with fake visa and documents.

    “We spent two days underground inside police custody. They treated us like criminals, trying to enter the country illegally. We were locked up for 48 hours before we were deported on October 22, and arrived Nigeria the following day.”

    Another victim, Rasheed Ololade, said he also paid N1.3m into Dorcas Sylver’s account, after persuaded him to go to Trinidad.

    One Lukmon Odeyemi, a footballer said he parted with N125,000 for Trinidad and Tobago visa.

    Meanwhile, one Friday Owah, who was at their office when they were apprehended, disclosed that he paid N600,000 to go to Trinidad and Tobago.

    In the course of investigation, the police were said to have contacted the High Commission of Trinidad and Tobago in Abuja, which replied by denouncing the so – called agents.

    A letter dated December 7, referenced ABJ: 6/2/3/14 and signed by Garth Lamsee, Acting High Commissioner for that country said: “…the Mission can categorically confirm that the individual SUN XINAI who is claiming to be an agent of this mission is unknown to us. Furthermore, this mission does not use the services of an ‘agent’ in any capacity whatsoever and has never done so in the past either.

    “With regard to the authenticity of the attached visas, the mission can also categorically confirm that those visas were not issued at this High Commission and are clearly fraudulent…Noteworthy too is the fact that since June 2015, this mission had stopped issuing stamped visas in passports for individual electronic visas from our country’s capital Port of Spain.”

    Confessing to the crime, Honyang said: “We operate as separate travel agencies under the company’s name, Golden Point Hotel and Tour but our office is located inside the hotel.

    “Sun Xinai is my sister and she is the director of the travel agency.  I only do paper works and documents for visa procurement. I don’t know how she secures visa for people. What I know is that she travels to Abuja and comes back with that stamped visa.”

    But Sun Xinai, the major suspect, noted that she was unaware that stamped visa for Trindad and Tobago was no longer tenable in that country anymore.

    Police spokesperson Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent (SP) said command was on the trail of all their agents and canvassers, adding that the public should be wary of fake visa agents.

    All the suspects have been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba, for further investigation.

  • ‘We survive by stealing phones and robbing people in Oshodi’

    ‘We survive by stealing phones and robbing people in Oshodi’

    One of the two suspects arrested by the operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command has disclosed that he and over 50 teenagers in Oshodi survive by stealing and dispossessing passers-by of their phones and other valuables.

    The suspect, Yusuph Ahmed, 19, from Offa, Kwara State according to a press statement by the RRS disclosed this to interrogators at the Squad’s  headquarters in Alausa, Ikeja on Friday afternoon.

    Ahmed, who was arrested in Oshodi on Friday after dispossessing a passenger of his phone, stated that he along with over 50 teenagers sleep in Oshodi under bridge and that it is from here they eke out a living by stealing phones and robbing passers-by of the valuables.

    Ahmed, who has been sleeping under Oshodi Bridge since he was 13, stressed that even though he doesn’t follow those who rob amongst them out all the time, he knows all of them.

    “I sleep in Oshodi Under Bridge. We are like 50 or 60 teenagers sleeping there. The adults sleep in Ori – Pako. I was 13 years old when I started sleeping there. I keep my cloth there.

    “I sleep around 8:00 p.m. or 9:00 p.m. There are some of us who do not sleep at all. They are the ones that alert us whenever the police is around.

    “There are equally those who do not sleep because they go from one place to the other in Oshodi to rob. They rob late at night and very early in the morning.

    “After the death of my mother, my father abandoned us. He stopped taking care of us leaving us to fend for ourselves.

    “Even the school, he stopped paying the monthly N600. I had to resort to packing granite to pay the monthly N600 for school fee.

    “At a point, I couldn’t cope with the fee. I was just 12. I dropped out and I decided to run to Lagos. Since then, Oshodi Under Bridge has been my home.

    “Any phone I stole, I sell to Mohammed or Kudus. They are beggars in Oshodi. They buy most of the stolen phones from us”, he stated.

    However, the stolen phone, a Tecno Y6, was recovered from Ahmed’s brother.
    The second suspect, Yusuph Agbaje, 25, from Oyo State, was arrested in Agege for stealing a Blackberry curve from a commuter.

    Responding to the development, the Police Public Relations Officer, Suprintendent Dolapo Badmos, Police would leave no stone unturned in get rid of criminal elements within the state, adding that, parents monitor the activities of their wards.

    The suspects have been transferred to the Lagos State Task-force.

  • RRS arrests suspected kid robbers in Oshodi

    RRS arrests suspected kid robbers in Oshodi

    Rapid Response Squad (RRS) operatives have arrested six suspected teenage robbers in Oshodi.

    The suspects, who were brought in batches to the RRS Headquarters in Alausa, Ikeja were apprehended the same day while dispossessing commuters of their belongings.

    The suspects – Ganiyu Rahman, 18, Sadiq Adebayo, 15, Timilehin Oluwaseun, 14, Moyinoluwa Ogundare, 18, Toheeb Tijani, 19 and Sodiq Adeleke, 17 – were arrested on Friday morning in Oshodi Oke.

    RRS quoted Rahman as saying: “We are over 50 boys. We are always in Oshodi – Oke, from morning till late night. Some of us genuinely help people to carry their loads while a lot of us are there to snatch handbags, phones and other valuables from people.

    “At time, we pretend to be helping them but our focus is their valuables. Most times, we work in groups. While the other is helping out, another person is stealing the victim’s valuables either from bag or pocket.

    “There some other guys who forcibly dispossess passers-by of their belongings. They operate early in the morning and late at night when their victims are helpless”.

    Rahman told RRS that he is a product of a broken home which has seen his parents remarrying, adding: “I have been sleeping in Oshodi under Bridge since 2013. I work as conductor and whenever i’m not, I am with my peer to rob and snatch valuables in Oshodi.

    “We were three when we stole the Microsoft phone from a woman’s bag. We pretended to be helping the woman to get a bus meanwhile, our intent was her phones. I have been committed to 13 month rehabilitation by the Lagos State Task Force but my home is in Oshodi under Bridge.”

    His victim, Sarah Obende, a student of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) told RRS that she discovered her phone was missing after she boarded a bus in Oshodi.

    “I later received a call in the evening that I should come to Alausa to collect my phone,” she said.

    The 15-year-old suspect, who was allegedly in company of two other boys while stealing an iphone and a phantom Tecno phone from a car, said, “Osas and Janbele stole the two phones in my presence. We have sold the two phones along with seven other phones to Tuwo in Idi-Oro, Mushin. They gave me N7,000 from the proceeds.

    Four of the remaining suspects – Oluwaseun, Ogundare, Tijani and Adeleke were all separately apprehended while stealing phones and purse from commuters in similar circumstances.

    Police spokesperson Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent (SP) urged parents to monitor the activities of their children.

    The suspects, Badmos said, have been transferred to the task force.

  • RRS arrests three robbery suspects

    RRS arrests three robbery suspects

    Rapid Responde Squad (RRS) operatives have arrested three persons for allegedly terrorising passers-by, broken down vehicle owners and other road users around Otedola Bridge on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

    RRS, The Nation learnt, recovered two master keys from them.

    Chima Joseph, 24, Hassan Adamu, 34, and Ibietan Oluwaseyi, 41, were arrested after they allegedly  dragged their victim from the expressway into the bush and dispossessed him of his belongings.

    The victim, Idi Musa, who was in Lagos for the first time, said he was on his way to Apapa from Borno State to meet his brother.

    RRS quoted him as saying: “I alighted at Ojodu Berger to walk from the Bus Stop to Ojota. As I walked down the road towards the bridge (Otedola), I heard somebody called out from the bush, Aboki! Aboki!!, zo mana (come). I ignored the call because I didn’t know them. As I continued my journey, two of them (pointing to Joseph and Adamu) ran after me, dragged me with my trousers into the bush, beat me several times before searching my pockets and luggage. They took N3, 000 from me.

    “After collecting my money, one of them (pointing to Adamu) threatened me that he was a Lagos State Government official and that if I ever come back there, they would arrest me and send me back to my village.

    “They then released me to go. As I descended the slope towards the bridge, I spotted an RRS vehicle. I went to the officers, narrated all that happened to me. Three of the officers went to the bush and arrested two of them.”

    Joseph, from whom the master keys were recovered, told RRS that he found the keys on the ground, adding that he was looking for a place to put it for people to see.

    It was revealed that the key, when tested open the doors of Toyota Camry, Corolla and

  • RRS arrests pickpocket kingpin, 20 others

    Operatives of the Lagos State crime-fighting outfit – the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) – have arrested a pickpocket kingpin, Ibrahim Kasali and 20 others, including an 18-year-old Ibrahim Yusuph, who has been imprisoned eight times.

    Kasali, (a.k.a. Ibrahim Babangida of Oshodi), was arrested in Oshodi.

    The suspects were arrested during a raid on miscreants’ Oshodi hideout between 4:30am and 6:35am on Friday around Mosafejo, Bolade, Oshodi Oke, and under the Oshodi Bridge.

    According to police sources, Kasali’s colleagues ‘gave him out’ after they were arrested, disclosing that he usually collected their loots, sold them and shares the proceeds among the thieves.

    “Some of his colleagues earlier arrested gave him out as their leader and that he is the one that goes around collecting stolen items or snatched from passersby to sell and share the proceeds to all of them,” a source said.

    Kasali, the source noted, has been to prison four times.

    The Nation gathered that four of those arrested were released after they satisfactorily identified themselves.

    Police spokesperson Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent (SP) said the suspects were in the custody of the State Environmental Taskforce, adding they will be prosecuted.

  • RRS arrests ‘Legion officer’ for ‘stealing’ four motorcycles

    RRS arrests ‘Legion officer’ for ‘stealing’ four motorcycles

    Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) have arrested a legionnaire for posing as an official of the Lagos State Taskforce on Special Offences to rob motorcycle riders in Agege and its environs.

    The suspect, Umam Hrmid, 48, from Borno, a Second Lieutenant of the Lagos State Command of the Nigerian Legion, was arrested on Friday evening around 10:30pm by RRS operatives in Agege after dispossessing one Amin Al–Hassan of his motorcycle.

    The suspect, who was working with his accomplice, Tijani Bashir, now at large, had accosted his victim, Al–Hassan, at Total Filling Station, Agege and introduced himself as a policeman attached to the Lagos State Taskforce on Special Offences.

    He allegedly told his victim that he was impounding his motorcycle for plying restricted area and for operating at prohibited hour.

    The Nation learnt that Al–Hassan pleaded for negotiation but Hrmid insisted his victim must bring N20, 000, but the motorcyclist offered N5, 000 which the suspect rejected.

    “When he refused to accept the N5, 000, he mounted the bike and rode it towards Iyana-Ipaja. I begged him but he told me to get down from the bike because I sat behind him while his partner rode the bike they brought,” Al–Hassan told RRS.

    “He rode through Agbotikuyo; At  Mulero, I forced the bike to a stop by removing its key from the ignition, and I got down.  We were arguing when two passers-by joined us and they requested for his identity card when he told them that he was a policeman with the task force. Reluctantly, he flashed his ID card before them but one of them was so swift to snatch it from him. Then, he began to chase the guy, who quickly ran towards a RRS patrol team nearby who arrested him and collected the dagger he was holding,” he added.

    At the RRS’s Headquarters, three other victims from whom Hrmid had collected bikes weeks before he was caught came with particulars of their bikes, alleging that Hamid, along with an accomplice, whom they described, took their bikes.

    The victims, Shuaib Abdullahi, Umaru Hassan and Salisu Umaru, stated that the suspect collected their motorcycles in a spate of three weeks, and that one of his victims was shot at a close range in the cheek at Shoretire Street, Agege.

    Abdullahi told RRS that the suspect around 9pm on Wednesday last week, took his bike marked FKJ 259 QA, Boxer model, from him, under the pretext that he was taking him to the task force office.

    “He drove me to Ile–Zik before threatening me to get down or he would kill him at the deserted place. I requested for his number and he gave me a fake number. I called the number immediately he left but the number didn’t go. I learnt he was arrested yesterday, that was why I came to RRS to collect my Okada from him,” he was quoted by RRS.

    The suspect, however, failed to deny the allegations of the three other victims when they confronted him.

    Police spokesperson Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent of Police (SP) said Hrmid’s arrest might help to shed more light on reported cases of motorcycles theft in Agege and its environs.

    The suspect, she said, has been transferred to Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) for further investigations.

  • RRS arrests athlete, 14 others for ‘stealing’ school computers

    Rapid Response Squad (RRS) operatives have arrested 15 suspects over an alleged stealing of seven computers and its accessories at Angos Memorial Senior High School, a public school in Somolu.

    The operatives also recovered four mini laptops, a LaserJet scanner, a desktop and a printer belonging to the school.

    The suspects were arrested on Wednesday morning when RRS Intelligence Team stumbled on a lead that one of the suspects was lurking in a gaming shop on 29, Awoseni Streets, Somolu.

    On interrogation, the suspect, who turned out to be a buyer of one of the stolen mini laptops designed for secondary school pupils, led to the arrest of a 19-year-old principal suspect, Yinka Adesola, and 13 others.

    Adesola, an athlete, told RRS that one Julius Akinyele, 20, a phone repairer, who he accommodated, brought seven mini laptops, 1 scanner, 1 desktop, a CPU and a LaserJet printer belonging to the school for keep in his apartment.

    RRS quoted him as saying: “I knew he was a wayward guy. I accommodated him because his relatives whom he was staying with were relocating from Somolu. I offered to assist him since I had an apartment to myself.

    “He was my junior in secondary. He was one of my fans while I was representing my school and Local Governments.

    “Immediately he joined me, a lot of things started missing in the compound, neighbours were losing their phones. Later, we discovered that he was the one stealing all the phones. My parents told me to eject him and I did.

    Arrested along with the suspect were Lookman Sokoya, 34, Wasiu Adejare, 30, Ismaila Adebowale, 42, Ramon Mukaila and a 17-year-old boy.

    According to RRS, only six out of the 15 suspects arrested were directly connected to the theft in the school.

    Four of the suspects were released to their relatives while the remaining five suspects were detained for their link to cult activities in Somolu.

    The suspects, Kazeem Adenuga, 24, Owolabi Yusuph, 35, Wasiu Shodipe, 27, Samson Kareem, 34 and Sheriff Badru, 22, were arrested when investigators discovered that they were involved in ceaseless violence in Awoseni Street on Tuesday night.