Abass, who is among a four-man armed robbery gang,
arrested October 10, 2012 at Dapo bus stop, along Adaloko, Jakande,
Ajamgbadi, an outskirt of Lagos, following a tip-off, laid the blame of his
involvement in the gang on unemployment.
Also, arrested are three other who identified
themselves as Nimfot Dimka, Roy Ettel and Moses Osariemen. But the police later
gave their true names as Alli Kadiri, Victor Alegbe and Joseph Nnam.
Abbas, a Bende LGA,, Abia state-born suspect, who was
paraded by the Lagos State Police Commissioner, Mr. Umar Manko at the command
headquarters, Ikeja on October 12, 2012, said his gang was behind series of
raids on banks in Lagos.
It was gathered that, the Assistant Commissioner of Police in
charge of Area ‘K’ Command Morogbo, ACP Adesina Soyemi, led a team of
operatives to apprehend the robbery suspects who were seen driving away in
three vehicles, a Toyota Space bus, marked AMC 347 AE (Lagos) and two
Volkswagen Faragon buses.
“Immediately the robbers sighted the police team they opened
fire at the detectives which led to an exchange of gunfire. As a result of the
superior fire power of the police team, three of the robbers were arrested. On
October 11, SARS tracked down one Kingsley Ekweme, said to be the custodian of
a white Toyota Sienna Space bus which the gang used as their armoury.
“Following their arrest, seven AK-47 rifles, 700 live round of
ammunition, 59 AK-47 rifle magazines, a K2 police rifle, a LAR police rifle,
with 20 live rounds of ammunition, three Pump Action Rifles (PAR), 150 live
cartridges, a police inspector uniform, five pieces of dynamites and other
accessories, a Toyota Sienna Space bus, marked AMC 347 AE (Lagos), a Jaguar
Saloon Car, marked TT 518 KJA (Lagos) and a Volkswagen Faragon bus, marked LUY
121 XA (Lagos) were recovered from the gang.
“The suspects have confessed to series of bank robberies in
Lagos and they are now helping the police in their investigation, with a view
to arrest other fleeing members of the gang”
According to the 24-year-old suspect, apart from raiding banks,
the gang also specialises in snatching posh vehicles and selling them to
would-be buyers in the neighbouring Republic of Benin capital, Cotonou.
He said his own role in the gang was to seek for buyers for
every stolen posh car and as a result, he has one receiver, who is simply
identified by his nickname, ‘Alfa’ and based in Cotonou.
“For every vehicle sold to Alfa in Cotonou I received N30, 000.
On rare occasions, I joined the gang members for operations but we usually
struck in Ajah, Victoria Island and Iyana Ipaja areas mostly at nights or very
early in the morning before 6:00a.m”, said Chidozie.
But Roy Ettel admitted he was responsible for taking every
vehicle stolen to Cotonou for onward delivery to Alfa.
According to him; “Whenever we succeeded in snatching these
vehicles from their owners I would take possession and contact Chidozie, who
would tell me where to park them for safe-keeping. Also, when it was time to
take them outside the shores of Nigeria I would be contacted to drive them to
the receiver in Cotonou”.
Moses Osariemen, who the police gave his real name as Kingsley
Ekweme, is the armourer of the gang.
He claimed that were it not for his arrest and the
recovery of the large cache of arms and ammunition, his gang had mapped out
plans to unleash a rein of terror on many targeted banks in Lagos on Sunday,
October 14, 2012.
The 30-year-old suspect revealed that all the arms and
ammunition recovered from them were procured on behalf of the gang by one
Tochukwu who he said, was based in Onitsha but now at large. He said he usually
paid into Tochukwu’s bank account whenever they needed weapons.
“I usually paid between N200, 000 and N500, 000 into Tochukwu’s
bank account and he would supply us”, averred Moses.
Moses further disclosed that the arrowheads of the gang are
based in Onitsha, Anambra state and that, it is whenever they wanted to operate
in Lagos that they usually call on their members based in the commercial nerve
centre of the country for their complementary roles.
On the recovery of the police inspector uniform from the gang
whether it belonged to one of the slain police officers murdered during
shoot-out at New Oko-Oba, Agege on Monday, October 8, 2012 or not during a
raid, Manko could not give vivid details but pledges that investigation had
begun into the matter to unearth the identity.
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