LAGOS State Police Command has arrested three suspected members of a
notorious robbery gang that have been on its wanted list, recovering
five AK 47 riffles and nine magazines. The gang that specialized in
operating in almost all the parts of the country, reportedly started as
an eight-man gang. But two of them have reportedly been killed in
separate shoot-outs.
The arrested suspects who were paraded before journalists at the
Lagos State Police Command, weekend, did not mince words in revealing
their separate roles in the gang. One of them, Wale Adeniyi, revealed
that he was the gang’s hit man.
27-year-old Taofeek Bukola said he was the gang’s driver while 20
year-old Oladun Agemo declared himself as the gang’s armourer. Luck ran
against them while returning from a herbalist’s home where they had gone
to renew their charms on the penetration of bullets, before going on an
operation in Ogun State.
In this interview with Crime Alert, Taoffek said he was tempted to
join the gang because of his inability to get money for his mother’s
medical bill. He claimed that he lost his father years back, leaving his
mother to cater for him and his four siblings.
But along the line, he said his mother had a mental problem which
confined her to a herbalist’s home. Since then, he said he had to cater
for himself, his wife, two children and his siblings. But meeting some
of the financial obligations of his mother, like buying of herbs and
other things was the most tasking.
He said: “As a result of this, I would work in the bakery until 6am
and then work as commercial bus driver, shuttling between Oshodi and
Iyana-Ipaja. Yet I could not meet up, as I normally got N1500 to N2000
everyday, which I used to feed my family. Then three months ago, I met
Akin who introduced me to the gang. My job was to drive them to the
venue of the operation, wait in the car while they went in and drive
immediately they came out.
“So far, I have gone on operations in Ibadan, Ogun and Akure with
them. In the first operation, I was given N150,000 and in another one I
was given N70,000 while in the third one I was given N100,000. The money
shared at the end of each operation depended on how much we realized in
the operation. We usually operated with information. We don’t just go
to anybody’s house.
“On the day of our arrest, I drove them to Ado where they said they
were going to renew their ‘ijaya’(charm to instill fear on their
victims) and also that which will not make bullet to penetrate into
them. It was on our way back to Otta that we were arrested.”
Asked where he got money to buy the vehicle, he said he got it from
the sale of his mother’s family plots, regretting that he was likely
going to die. When 20-year-old Oladun Agemo was approached, he simply
stated that he was the gang’s armourer, and that he had never gone on
any operation with them.
