Ikorodu-based Hotelier Arrested For Armed Robbery

A notorious armed robbery kingpin who also, is an Ikorodu-based hotelier is currently in police net. Also, nabbed alongside with the kingpin, Saheed Quadri, are two other members of the gang, Taiwo Adisa Ojedokun and Jelili Ojedokun, both cousins from Iwo town, Osun state are cooling their feet in the custody of the detectives attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command Headquarters, Ikeja, Lagos.

The gang which is dreaded for its numerous operations within Agric-Owutu, Ikorodu and its environs, it was said, had snatched over 2,000 posh vehicles in the last one year.

It was gathered that no fewer than ten stolen vehicles have so far been recovered from their receivers in Abuja by the detectives.

An informed police source hinted that the gang which has an operational motorcycle, owned and deployed two locally made pistols and operated between the hours of 5:00p.m and 9:00p.m.

All the three gang members, including the gang leader, it was said, reside in Maya town, an outskirt of Ikorodu.

Saheed (aka Otunba) is said to be the owner of Love Garden Hotel, Maya, Ikorodu. Owing of his strong spiritual power, the 30-year-old kingpin, who is also, known as Baba Ayomide, had on several occasions evaded arrests.

‘Whenever we were after his gang he would always escape. On many occasions, we had killed some of his boys during encounters and also, arrested some. Some are in Kirikiri maximum prisons, Lagos , Shagamu and Abeokuta prisons, Ogun state respectively serving jail terms’, said a police source.

Inside his private room in Maya, it was gathered, who is from Fidigbade family and hails from Oju-Ore Compound, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun state owns a shrine in his private room which he consults before going out for operations. 

‘Nobody enters the private room except him. When we were searching his home it was then, we burst into the room and fresh blood was splashed all over a white cloth used to cover the shrine. In a bid to cover his identity as an armed robber, he hid under a cover either as a ram seller, building materials dealer or an hotelier’, added the police source. Saheed also, owned up to the shrine which he said, he is the only person permitted to enter the room and usually slaughters guinea fowls to appease the deity.

Nemesis was said to have caught up with the gang, following the theft of two Black Berry phones, among other personal belongings found in a Honda Accord Saloon Car (End-of-Discussion Continues model), marked EW 795 SMK (Lagos) snatched from a woman, Mrs. Onome Emojefe at agric bus stop, Ikorodu at about 6:00p.m on August 26, 2012. The woman was said to have been stripped naked when the suspects armed with two guns accosted her at the bus stop in their operational motorcycle and made away with the Honda Saloon car.

On how he was arrested, Saheed also, known as Baba Ayomide narrated his eventual fall.

‘A cousin in the neighbourhood, Shakiru who is an automobile mechanic stole one of the Black Berry phones from my vehicle, Honda Accord Saloon Car (Babby Boy model). Subsequently, he sold it to another person and it was through the receiver in Ago-Iwoye, Ogun state that the bubble finally burst. The man was arrested and he took the detectives to Shakiru who sold the set to him. From Shakiru, he led the detectives to my home in Maya and I was arrested on September 4, 2012. On the day we robbed the woman, three of us, Small (an Urhobo friend), AY (the duo still at large) and my humble self participated in the attack. Taiye Adisa (aka Tejisco) is the receiver our stolen vehicles, which he subsequently sells to ready buyers in Abuja . This same Honda Accord Saloon Car (End-of-discussion continues model) we snatched from the woman Tejisco bought it from me at a sum of N1.1m. Before then, he had bought a Honda Accord Saloon Car (End-of-Discussion) at N400,000 from me. The total number of vehicles I had sold to Tejisco is ten in number. They include four Toyota Camry Saloon Cars, two Honda Accord Saloon Car (Baby boy), Honda CRV jeep, Toyota Sienna Space bus and two Honda Accord Saloon Cars (End-of-Discussion continues and an End-of-Discussion models). All these ten vehicles the detectives had recovered them from their various buyers in Abuja and brought back to Lagos ’.   

Police sources also, corroborated the confessions of the kingpin who they said, had been in their wanted list.

According to them; ‘We received a petition from the woman over the incident and we stepped into action. The woman told us that her phone gave in the suspects. She said since the very day she was robbed she had been trying to call her phone and as luck would have it the phone set was switched on. The woman claimed she spoke with the receiver and from there on, they established a mutual relationship. The woman and the receiver were engaged in pinging and through that they were exchanging pictures and also, text messages. At a stage, the woman claimed she played along to be interested in dating the receiver and thereafter, asked him to meet him at a fast food joint somewhere here in Lagos where they could meet face-to-face and he honoured the invitation. Already, we were on ground and we picked him up. It was through him we were able to pick Saheed’.

The kingpin is married and blessed with three children.

Taiwo, popularly called ‘Tejisco’, a neighbour to Saheed at Maya, admitted greed lured him into the gang.

The 32-year-old suspect, who claimed to be an aluminium fabricator by trade, said the posh vehicles the kingpin usually flaunts into the neighbourhood caught his fancy.

‘I always saw him with different posh vehicles whenever he comes home. It is not the one you saw with him today that he would bring home the following day. He has them in many brands. As a result of this, I worked my way through to get close to him and we became friends. Initially, I did not know that he was into armed robbery until I was neck-deep in receiving vehicles which I sell to buyers in Abuja . The first vehicle I bought from him was a Honda Accord Saloon Car (Baby boy model) at N400,000 value.  Subsequently, I bought a Toyota Camry Saloon Car at a sum of N350, 000 which I later sold to a man at N650, 000. Also, I bought a Nissan Pathfinder Jeep from Saheed at a sum of N1.1 million but I had only paid N950, 000 before my client who contracted me to supply aluminium materials to his building site in Ikorodu seized the vehicle from me because I abandoned the work half way. The vehicle is still in the custody of the man’, confessed the Iwo , Osun state-born suspect.

He said he rented a room apartment in Ushafa village, an outskirt of Abuja where he uses as his outlet for the display of the stolen vehicles.

To many people who patronise him, the suspect claimed himself to be a ‘tokunbo’ car dealer who imports the vehicles from Cotonou , Republic of Benin capital.

The third suspect, Jelili Ojedokun also, from Iwo , said he came in contact with Saheed sometime in April this year shortly after, he realised a sum of N500, 000 from the sale of a property located at Liadi village, behind Maya, which he wanted to use to buy a car.

According to Baba Khalid, he knew another Saheed (alias Eleran) but now at large through Tejisco, his cousin when he wanted to buy the vehicle.

He said Tejisco called Saheed and a meeting was scheduled to hold at FATMOT Joint, a local food vendor shop located at Ragolis bus stop, Ikorodu.

‘Therein at FATMOT Joint, we met one Stanley also, a member of the gang, and I told Stanley that I wanted to buy a vehicle. I told him specifically that I needed a Honda Accord Saloon Car (Baby boy model) and he asked me to give him a sum of N500, 000. When I had not seen the vehicle I wanted to buy I decided to play wise and paid N250, 000, with a promise to defray the balance of N250, 000 when he brings the vehicle. He honoured the deal but I had an accident with the vehicle when I drove it to Ilorin . I later sold it to another man at N500, 000. Subsequently, when I wanted to get another car, Saheed brought a Toyota Camry Saloon Car but I offered him N150, 000 but he did not bother to ask for the balance and I became suspicious of the motives behind the sales’, explained the 30-year-old suspect.

On whether he knew those he called his friends are armed robbery suspects, he retorted; ‘The last time Saheed sent me on an errand to go to an uncompleted wall of a building in Maya to bring a polythene nylon bag kept inside a hole aroused my suspicion. When I lifted up the nylon bag it was heavy and upon opening it, I saw two guns, number plates and live cartridges. So, since I had got my fingers burnt in the gang I could not withdraw from it until our arrest.

According to police sources, a manhunt was launched after the receiver of the stolen vehicles to Abuja but he was nabbed in Ibadan , Oyo state capital where he had escaped immediately he had got wind that the detectives were after him.

‘We had to trick him and asked someone to call and tell him that he wanted to buy a vehicle from him. He fell into the trap and we arrested him in Ibadan ’, said the police source.

However, Ngozi Braide, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Lagos State Police Command Public Relations Officer confirmed the report and said detectives were still investigating the matter.  

Credit: Leadership