"I Started Armed Robbery After Ogboni Confraternity Failed Me" - Robbery Suspects

The Ogun State Command of Special Anti Robbery Squad have arrested four suspected members of a robbery gang who specialised in snatching vehicles from their owners at gun point. One significant trait about this robbery gang is its penchant for posh cars, preferably Toyota Camry cars and jeeps. Its members who
reside in Ogun state, as gathered, travel to other states in the south west region to operate and thereafter, sell the stolen cars at give away prices to ready buyers in Lagos state. In this interview with Crime Guard the suspects revealed their respective roles, with 25 -year-old Kazeem Abiodun who hails from Otto -Awori , Ojo Lagos, saying: “I am an NCE holder from Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education , Ijanikin, Lagos. I graduated in year 2011. I have have had several jobs but made no head way. I had to join Ogboni confraternity out of frustration. Yet, I did not make any headway.

I started with snatching handbags at bus-stops, from where I met Rafiu Ojolowo. Our major place of operation was Agabra bus-stop. We were into that until wee met Isiaka who introduced us to real robbery where we used arms. I was given a pistol while Rafiu rode the okada”.

The second accomplice, Isiaka said; “I am a secondary school drop -out. I have tried my hands on many menial jobs without being able to feed myself. Several times, my family have suggested I got married. But no woman wanted to marry me because I have no money. I learnt tiling but could not get money to start a business of my own. I ventured into internet fraud . But because I am not educated, I could not make any thing reasonable out of it.

Along the line, I met Ife who introduced me into robbery . I learnt how to snatch cars from where they were parked , using a metal key. Our choice car then was Toyota Camry because it is easy and faster to sell.

Anytime we succeeded in moving the vehicles from where they were packed, my job would be to drive them down to Lagos , from where we would hand them over to Major , our receiver. We were initially taking it to Alhaji Balogun who has a show room ,before we switched to ‘Major’ who paid higher. For every car I took to Major, I got N10,000 to N50,000, depending on the model.

However, the forth suspect, Afeez Bakare, claimed he never partook in the robbery. He disclosed rather that other members of the gang mentioned his name to avenge him of a previous offence.

According to the Ogun state suspect, “I have never joined them in any operation. One of them, Ife , only called to inform me that he had a RAV4 Toyota Jeep to sell. I never knew he stole it. He told me it was his and wanted to sell it because he had no money. All I did was to get him a buyer , one, Major, based at Abule-Egba, Lagos. I took them in the vehicle to ‘Major’ house in Sango and he bought the vehicle for N270,000. I was only given N10,000 .

But two months later I discovered they went behind me to sell another vehicle to Major for N750,000,without my knowledge. I was angry and decided to set them up by reporting to the Police, thereby leading to their arrest . That was a long time ago. I have not set my eyes on them . They only implicated me to revenge” said the 32-year-old suspect.