"How We Trail Bank Customers" – Lagos Robbery Suspects' Confessions

The Special Anti-Rob­bery Squad (SARS) in Lagos has arrested two suspected criminals who specialized in trailing and robbing bank customers as they leave bank premises with money. The duo of Daniel Ogwu and Henry Marsikoro, was sighted by an eagle-eyed policeman attached to a bank
in the Badagry area of Lagos while they were waiting for their next victim in between two banks in the area.

According to the source, “while they were waiting, the security man on duty suspected their movements. They were subsequently arrested and taken to Badagry police division with their vehicle, a Toyota jeep. On getting to the sta­tion, the police conducted a search on the vehicle and later discovered a locally-fabricated master key inside the jeep.”

Speaking with Sunday Sun, one of the suspects, Daniel Ogwu, an indigene of Delta State, said he enrolled for marine and industrial engineering after his secondary education in 1998, a training he underwent for five years. “After that, I started working on my own. We repaired big gen­erators for companies and even the ones that ships use.”

Ogwu, who denied any criminal past, claimed that he went into crime in 2009 when his business suffered a major setback. “We started in 2009 because I later entered into business. I started travelling to Germany to bring buses to Nigeria. The business was going on well until I bought one container at auction. When I opened it, the content was different from what was manifest­ed. Then I lost all my money and even acquired a huge debt. The manifest said second-hand cars, but what I saw inside was spare parts that were not even valuable. At the end of the day, I could not even get a quarter of my money back.”

On his part, Marsikoro, a tipper driver, said the person who intro­duced him to the crime was one Chibuike who has since travelled out of the country. It was the same person that gave him the master key. His journey into crime start­ed when Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State banned the movement of molue buses from going to CMS. “The work was not giving us money like before. After that I drove tipper for some time. Then the owner sold it. And I was left jobless.”

For Marsikoro, the fear of going to prison is not as palpable as the fear of losing his wife who he is fervently praying will not leave him because of the crime he committed. The man, whose wife just had their second child, told reporters: “My wife was very surprised when she heard about this thing. She was thinking that I was still driving tipper. And I pray that she will not leave me. I am disappointed at my action. My family members have all refused to come and see me here. They feel embarrassed because of what I have done.”