Members of a seven-man gang said to be notorious for robbing Lagos residents of their valuables were arrested by the Rapid Respond Squad of the Lagos State Police Command on Valentine’s Day.
The syndicate was known for terrorising 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.
A statement issued by the command on Sunday stated that all the suspects said they came from different parts of the country but were residing in Abattoir, Agege, Lagos.
The suspects had, on Thursday last week, allegedly robbed one Augustine Agafe 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.
Agafe stated, “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 were 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.”
In his confessional statement, one of the suspects said his gang 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 Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mu’azu Zubairu, who ordered the arrest of all the gang members, added that they had 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.
