… Gun, cartridges, charms found on him
Every
day for the thief; only one for the owner. So the adage goes. So, it was for
27-year-old Sunday Sowemimo who was caught red handed at a robbery scene. How
did it happen?
Sunday
Sowemimo, a suspected armed robber, recently had his wish thwarted by the ever
awake and security-conscious vigilance group of Fagbayinu-Olokodana Streets,
Ebute Metta Area in Lagos Mainland Local Government Area of Lagos State.
Sowemimo, 27, and two of his partnersin- crime, Ismaila and Mutiu, stormed the
community around 12:45a.m, ;n a motorcycle, when residents were deep in sleep.
They
parked their two-wheeler a distance away from the entrance of the street beside
a stationary lorry. Once this was done, the three men crawled their way to the
targeted house where the breadwinner was said to have just returned from an
overseas trip. Moments after the arrival at Olokodana intersection, the three
men reportedly stopped to re-strategise. Moments after their brief meeting,
they resumed their belly walk towards their target.
But
unknown to them, some members of the community were keeping vigil over the
entire area as a precautionary measure to ward-off robbers in the wake of
series of robbery incidences reported at Ebute Metta, recently. Just as the
three robbers were about the launch their attack, guns in hand, the vigilance
group swooped on them. Ismail and Mutiu reportedly outsmarted the advancing
vigilance group and took to their heels. The two suspected robbers disappeared
into the night. But Sowemimo was not so lucky.
While
he was trying to also jump through a low fence into the next compound, he was
overpowered and wrestled to the ground. After a thorough search was conducted
on him, a locally-made pistol with some cartridges was found in the inner
pocket of the second pair of trousers he had on. (The suspect had on two pairs
of trousers at the time of his arrest). Sowemimo was initially un-cooperative
about disclosing their mission in the area.
However,
he later owned up when he was threatened of immolation. He then gave a
confessional statement to the assembled residents before he was handed over to
the police,. He claimed that the three of them had been reconnoitring the area
for about two weeks working out modalities for the DDay.
According
to Sowemimo, “Three of us came for the operation. I was the one in font and
when we heard the noise of the vigilance group, Asunmo and Mutiu fled through
the gutter close by. I wanted to go with them, but before I could make a turn,
two vigilance group members swooped on me,” he said. Asked whom they actually
came to rob that morning, Sowemimo answered, “It was a friend living in the
area who told us about a man who recently returned from overseas saying that
the man had a lot for us. That was why we came here.”
A
member of the vigilance group that busted Sowemimo and his partners-incrime,
but who wanted to remain anonymous, told Saturday Mirror that a keen look at
the hand-made pistol in his pocket smelt of recent use. According to the
elderly man, “I was the one who took the gun from his pocket and when I brought
it out, I perceived that the gun was recently used. It seemed as they had just
expended some bullets in it.
They
must have carried out an attack before they got here,” the elderly vigilance
member said. A resident of the community, identified as Kasumu, claimed that
the noise of the vigilance group woke his entire household.
According
to Kasumu, “It was their noise that woke my entire family from our sleep. Our
community had been at the mercy of robbers in the recent times. But for the
efforts of the vigilance group, only God knows what would have become of Ebute
Metta by now. A police source told Saturday Mirror that Sowemimo actually
confessed that the three of them rode on a motorcycle to Olokodana Street where
they parked it and made the last of the journey on foot.
Source: National Mirror
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