An unsuspecting
womanizer would easily fall into their traps seeing their feminine faces
made-up with cosmetics, with weave-on hairdo that dangles on both sides of
their broad shoulders.
Their coated lips
look inviting. No doubt, countless men must have fallen prey to them. Many
passersby who thronged the state headquarters of the Police command at
Eleiyele, Ibadan to catch a glimpse of these attractive “women” could not hide
their disbelief.
Though, their
chests were flat which should convince doubting Thomases that the suspects were
not women, some still insisted on seeing their private parts due to their
looks.
One of the suspects, Lawal Kabir whose eyelids blink
momentarily like a doll in the old Kingsway Store claims to be a devout Muslim
and considers only Fridays and the Ramadan period as sacred days in the whole
year when he thinks he should not engage in armed robbery.
These days, especially Fridays, he said, he would go to the
mosque to pray to God to forgive all his criminal tendencies only to continue
his devilish acts thereafter. In fact, the suspect said he was arrested on
Friday after observing the Jumat prayers.
Given their looks, one needed no soothsayer to discern that
the suspects had carried out numerous deadly attacks on their victims even
though they admitted to have participated in no fewer than four successful
robbery operations.
According to them, they had made people cry in places like
Osun, Sawmill, Iyana-Agbala and other places when they unleashed terror on
them. Knowing their days of reckoning had finally come, the eight-man gang
confessed some of the crimes they had committed to Crime Alert.
Ayodele Olaitan, who wore a mask, one of the tools they use
in their nefarious activities shook his head in regret and said: “It was my
friends that pushed me into this. I joined the gang sometime ago and I have
participated in at least three robbery operations.
I am not the owner of the mask you see on me. It belongs to
one of us called pastor. He is dead now. I regret all my actions. I didn’t
realize we could be caught. But, now the game is up, “ he said as he burst into
tears.
Like other criminals, Lawal Kabir said he was pushed into
the criminal world as a result of an unsuccessful business venture. “I took to
robbery when my plumbing work was not booming.
Three years after my freedom as an apprentice, I tried all I
could to make both ends meet, but things did not work for me. I first stayed in
Lagos before I later came to Ibadan where I was introduced to a gang of armed
robbers. I have participated in four armed robbery attacks.
I went with them to Osun State, Ibadan, Sawmill and Iyana
-Agbala. I was arrested on Friday after I finished praying in the mosque.
Somebody we call a pastor, also a member of the gang called me without knowing
the police had already arrested him.
I don’t rob on Fridays and during Ramadan. I used those
periods to pray to God to forgive me my sins. I know what I was doing was wrong
but it was difficult for me to break away from it.”
Another member of the gang, Biola Alaba who wore a weave-on
hairdo said they were eight in number and that they were arrested at a drinking
joint while preparing to carry out a robbery operation at Bodija area of the
city. He denied ever killing any of their victims.
“How can I commit two sins at the same time. I cannot rob
and kill at the same time. It is unfair to rob someone of his belongings and
kill him. We don’t even rape our victims, “ he said.
As for Sunday Omooba from Ogbomoso who says he is a member
of the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, he narrated how he took charge of the
armoury for the gang. “I helped them get bullets through one man. I just call
the man any time I need bullets for the gang.
I don’t rob with them. In fact, I did not know that they
were using the bullets to rob. I also supplied that pump action gun to them. I
bought the gun for N70,000 from a friend. If I knew that they would use the
weapons for robbery, I would not give them.”
The Investigating Police Officer in charge of the case
alleged that Omooba supplied the pump action gun and killed the owner of the
gun so that he could get the gun from him and did not give the money he
promised to give him.
Other suspects who are car snatchers including those who
bought the stolen vehicles from them were also arrested in Kaduna and Kano. Two
of the suspects, Dolapo Olayinka and Yusuf Ibrahim, robber and accomplice
respectively; gave their own accounts. Olayinka said he only used his
commercial motorcycle to convey the robbers who dispossessed people of their
items. He recalled how they crossed a woman’s vehicle and took N20,000 from her
at gun point.
The owners of the stolen vehicles were at the police command
to identify their vehicles. All of them pleaded anonymity for fear of being
attacked by yet-to-be-identified members of the gang.
One of them said his car, a Toyota Camry, was snatched at
gunpoint on October 1, last year around 8pm and he reported at the Special Anti
robbery squad.
He specifically commended the efforts of one SP Sola Aremu,
the O/C SARS, Ogbomoso and his boys for going ahead to recover the car. He
said: “I am full of thanks to the police. I never thought I could recover my
car again. The SARS in Ogbomoso acted promptly. I have never seen police work
like that.”
The State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed Indabawa
said, “sequel to tip-offs about a criminal hideout at a mechanic village, Iyana
Church, Ibadan, a raid was organized and SARS operatives arrested the following
suspected armed robbers: Olaitan Ayodele, Abiola Alaba, Oyewole Ogunwole,
Adedeji Mustapha, Omooba Oyewole and Adedeji Mustapha. On interrogation, they
all confessed to their past and present crimes within and outside Oyo State.
They also confessed to have attacked and robbed two police officers.
All the people they confessed to have robbed were contacted
and they corroborated their confessions.
In order to recover some of their loot as well as arms and
ammunition, a search was conducted in the house of the leader of the gang, one
Ayodele Olaitan along Airport Road, Ibadan and the following exhibits were
recovered; one pump action gun, one English cut-to-size double barrel gun, one
single-barrel gun, locally made cylinders and many others.
Culled from Vanguard
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