Like the police, we stop and search motorists —Suspect

                        

 

Rasheed Oladehinde, a 33 - year- old member of an armed robbery gang that invaded some towns and villages in Ifo Local Government area of Ogun State recently, claimed that the gang members stopped and searched unsuspecting members of the public who thought that they were security operatives.

 

He, however, told Crime & Security that the gang usually carried out its activities in the mornings when traders and other workers were on their way to work going out in the morning were searched and robbed of their money and other valuables.

Five members of his gang were reportedly killed during a gun duel with men of the anti-robbery squad of the Agbado divisional police station in Sango Police Area Command, Ogun State.

 

Three motorcycles of the armed robbers, two locally made short guns, three laptops, 22 mobile phones, jewelry and other valuables were recovered from the gang.

Crime & Security gathered that troubled started for the armed robbers around 7 O’ clock on the morning of the attack, when the divisional police officer in charge of Agbado police station, Gbenga Megbope, received a call that armed robbers had invaded some villages within his jurisdiction.

 

The robbers, according to investigation, began their operation around 3 O ‘ clock in the morning and raided Oluke, Okugbolu, Sonekan, Seriki, Onireke and Oyero villages.  

The armed robbers were almost rounding off their activities, when policemen stormed the village, launched  a fierce gun battle , which lasted for over 30 minutes, leading to the death of five members of the gang. Some of them, however, escaped after succumbing to the superior firepower of the policemen.

 

Rasheed, while speaking with Crime & Security, confessed that he was a member of the gang but blamed his involvement on his inability to get a truck for commercial purpose after serving as a motor boy. 

According to him, “I was a motor boy and I did that for a long time since when my father was a truck driver. I followed trucks to many places and we would not come back until about three days after.

 

“At a time, I tried to get my own truck because I can drive. I couldn’t get a truck. My oga was even working against me. 

“An area brother, who knew me to be very hardworking, noticed that I was jobless and that I had no money again and he decided to help me. He was the one who introduced me to armed robbery but then, we were not attacking peoples’ houses.

“We only stopped and searched people who went out early around Sango area. We robbed them of whatever we found on them and escaped through a local government primary school behind Sango Garage.” 

 

He stated that a certain land speculator identified simply as “Jet Li” invited the gang to rob the villages.

“Jet Li who is a land speculator invited us from Ijoko area to come and rob the villages. They know him very well in those villages because he does his land business around there. He told us that there were many new sites and that we should rob them,” the suspect said.

The image maker in charge of the Ogun State police command, Muyiwa Adejobi, confirmed to Crime & Security the death of five armed robbers and the arrest of one of them after a fierce gun duel with the police at Agbado police division.