Sherifat Bakare, a
24yr-old young lady one could describe at first glance as pretty. But as she
sat on the ground in front of the Special
Anti-Robbery Squad of the Ogun State
Police Command in Abeokuta, one cannot but imagine how deadly she might
have been on operations with her robbery gang.
“I was hustling before
Raji, my boyfriend, told me to join his gang,” Bakare began. But when she
was
asked to elaborate on what she did as a “hustler,” she explained that she meant prostitution.
Bakare in company with four other members of her gang, were
apprehended on Wednesday, May 21, 2014 by the men of Ogun State SARS, who had
been on their trail after receiving a tip-off about the gang’s plan.
It all began a few weeks ago, Bakare narrated. She said
another member of the gang, Bola Onasile,
(also in SARS custody) had approached her boyfriend about the availability of
N70m in a wealthy man’s house in Joju area of Sango, Ogun State.
“I have only gone on
two operations with them. I don’t know him (Onasile) well. I only know that he
was the one who brought the job. “Raji gathered other members and they snatched
a vehicle (a Nissan Quest) around Iwo Road, Ibadan. We decided that the vehicle
would be used for the operation.
“The gang asked me to
sit in the front of the vehicle so that when we were stopped by policemen on
the way, being a woman in the front seat would make them unsuspicious. But
during the operation, the police cornered us and Raji was shot dead.”
Bakare did not betray any emotions as she narrated how the
operation went. Asked if she smoked Indian hemp like other members of her gang,
she said, “I have never tasted it, I only
smoke cigarette.”
But when our correspondent asked about her parents, tears
streamed down her face. “I am from
Idofian in Kwara State. My father is late but my mother lives in Ibadan. She
has no idea I do this kind of job and she does not even know I am in police
custody.”
Bakare explained that she was a prostitute in Lekki where
she was making up to N5,000 per day until about two years ago. “I was living with a security guard in a
house at Osborne in Ikoyi. The landlord of the house was out of the country. I
was going from there to ‘hustle’ in Lekki every night.
“Raji was a good
helper to me. That was why I decided to leave prostitution when he begged me.
When he introduced me to armed robbery, I asked him if there would be no
problem and he assured me that there would be none. When we started dating, I
did not know he was an armed robber though.”
Asked how much she was promised out of the N70m they were
going to steal, Bakare said whatever went to her late boyfriend would have
accrued to her as well.
The young lady said she learnt photography when she dropped
out of secondary school but had not been able to practise the trade because she
did not think she could make much money from it.
Credit: Punch Nigeria
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