Seven-Man-Gang Of Robbers Arrested By Police In Lagos

The Rapid Respond Squad of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested a seven-man gang revealed to be notorious for robbing Lagos residents of their valuables.

The suspects were apprehended by the police command on February 14, Valentine’s Day.

A report revealed that the robbers are known for terrorizing residents around the College Road, Fagba, and Abattoir areas of the state.

The suspects, Lekan Akinyemi, 23; Chimeze Ofulie, 18; Babangida Abdullahi, 22; Abubakar Umaru, 30; Samuel Oyinloye, 24; Timileyin Oladipupo, 27; and Habeeb Olayinka, were arrested around 9pm on College Road, Ifako-Ijaiye, Lagos, after the gang had robbed more than five passers-by of their valuables while brandishing knives and other dangerous objects.

The command in a statement on Sunday had stated that all the suspects came from different parts of the country but reside in Abattoir, Agege, Lagos.

A man identified as Augustine Agafe had been robbed after he alighted from a taxi at College Road, Ifako-Ijaiye.

Among the items they reportedly collected from their victim were an android phone, N14,000, and a handbag.

“I allowed them to rob me because they were many and were holding dangerous weapons, but I trailed them to an open place before raising the alarm. This drew the attention of some RRS officers on patrol in the area and they arrested some of them.

“They equally robbed some other victims, among who was a lady and her boyfriend. The hoodlums dispossessed them of their phones and stabbed the boyfriend, who refused to let go of his mobile phone after parting with his wallet.”

One of the suspects in his confession revealed that they specialised in robbing passers-by at night by collecting their mobile phones, bags, jewellery and wallets.

An investigation by the police revealed that one of the suspects, Oladipupo, popularly known as ‘Timi Yahoo’, specialised in working on SIM cards of stolen phones to determine which ones were enabled for Internet banking in order to transfer money from their victims’ accounts.

“I have worked on so many SIM cards given to me by Akinyemi and other groups in Agege, and what I do is to further increase our gain from the robberies by transferring victims’ money from their bank accounts after using some software to determine how much is lodged in their accounts, and we share the proceeds,” Oladipupo stated.

The Commissioner of police in the state, Mu’azu Zubairu, revealed that they have been transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad for a thorough investigation.

He noted that the gang members would be charged to court as soon as investigations was completed.