LAGOS RRS NABS SIX ARMED ROBBERS

Nemesis finally caught up with a group of armed robbers after operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) unit of the Lagos State Police Command arrested the syndicate believed to have been terrorising College Road, Fagba and Abattoir areas of the State.

The gang was arrested on February 14, 2019, around 9:00 p.m on College Road, Ifako-Ijaiye area of Lagos, after they had robbed more than five passers-by of their valuables brandishing knives and other harmful objects.

On interrogation, the arrested suspects, Lekan Akinyemi (23), Chimeze Ofulie (18), Babangida Abdullahi (22), Abubakar Umaru (30), Samuel Oyinloye (24), Timileyin Oladipupo (27) and Habeeb Olayinka, said they came from different parts of the country but reside in Abattoir, Agege, Lagos.

They also confessed that they had on Thursday, robbed one Agafe Augustine after he alighted from a taxi at College Road, Ifako Ijaiye, adding that the items stolen from him by the gang include an android phone, N14,000 and a handbag.

According to Agafe, “I allowed them to rob me because they were many and were holding dangerous objects but I trailed them to an open place before raising alarm. This drew the attention of some RRS officers on patrol in the area and they arrested some of them”.

He added that “they equally robbed some other victims amongst whom were a lady in the company of her boyfriend. They dispossessed them of their phones and stabbed her boyfriend who refused to let go of his mobile phone after parting with his wallet”.

One of the suspects said they specialise in robbing passersby at night collecting their mobile phones, bags, jewellery and wallets.

On further investigation, the police discovered that one of the suspects, Timileyin Oladipupo popularly known as ‘Timi Yahoo’, specialised in working on SIM cards of stolen phones to determine which ones are internet banking enabled to facilitate the gang access to transferring money from victims’ accounts.

In his confessional statement, Oladipupo disclosed “I have worked on so many SIM cards given to me by Lekan and other groups in Agege Abbatior and what I do is to further increase our gain from the robbery by transferring victim’s money from their bank accounts after using some software to determine how much is lodged inside their accounts and we also share the proceeds”.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police Mu’azu Zubairu has ordered a transfer of the suspects to SARS for a thorough investigation, as well as for the gang be charged to court afterwards.