"How My Brother Recruited Me" - Nabbed Robbery Suspect Recounts Ordeal

"It was my brother, Oche, who is our gang’s leader who invited me to Lagos to take up an employment, unknown to me that the job he had in mind was armed robbery." This was the confession of 20-year-old Morgan Udama, a member of the armed robbery gang arrested by operatives attached to
Okota Isolo Police Station in Lagos, yesterday.

Udama, who hails from Oju in Benue State, said further: “I finished Senior Secondary School 3 (SSS3) in 2010 at Otupo, after which I was riding commercial motorcycle (Okada) before my brother, Oche, phoned me to come to Lagos, pladging that he would find me a better work that would fetch me enough saving for my university education. He also told me he was living in a three-bedroom flat, unknown to me that the one-room apartment he inhabited with his elder brother belonged to the latter.
“When I arrived last Monday, he asked me to follow him to take up an employment. When we got there, he snatched a woman’s car with pistol. I was surprised. When I asked him if robbery was the work he found for me, he said “yes,” assuring that very soon, I would be counting millions of naira. The mistake I made was that I still entered the snatched car. I should have left them because I was standing at a very good distance. But I feared that people at the scene might later lynch me if I did not follow them.”

His accomplices are: Suleiman Abdullahi, 23, from Bida, Niger State; Samson Oyebanji, 23, from Oro in Kwara State and John Oche, 26, from Idoma, Benue State.

A source said the four suspects snatched a Honda car belonging to one woman at Gbagada General Hospital Junction, Gbagada, Lagos, on Saturday at about 10am and drove the car to an estate in Okota Isolo area with only one outlet.

When the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Okota Isolo Police Station, Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) Adamu Ibrahim got the tip-off the gang was in his territory, he led his patrol team on its trail. On sighting the operatives, the robbers sped off towards the Ire-Akari Estate, parked the car and took to their heels. However, they were arrested at different locations in and outside the estate.

Suleiman, who corroborated Morgan, said Oche is the owner of the pistol used in the operation, adding: “We did not shoot the woman; we just collected her Honda car.” Samson, who said he is a technician, said: “I sat inside the car. We trekked to the junction and snatched the car. When we got to Barracks Junction, policemen tried to stop us, but we refused to stop.”

Oche, who said he is a commercial bus driver plying Oshodi-Ajah route, confessed to pointing the gun at their victim. “My role was to drive the snatched car out of the robbery scene. My brother (Morgan) is a big liar. I did not invite him to Lagos. He committed a serious offence in Otrupo and ran to Lagos,” he said. He added: “Samson’s master in Bariga, who is called ‘Campus,’ introduced me to him that I should follow them and do the job (armed robbery).