I ‘graduated’ from kid robber to
notorious car snatcher – Man, 29
on september 15, 2013 at 8:10 am in
crime guard
By Ifeanyi Okolie
Operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery
Squad, SARS, in Lagos State, have
arrested a gang of car snatchers
suspected of terrorizing Ikeja and other
parts of the state for a long time. The
suspects, Sadiq Olayibi, Tolani Adeyinka,
Adeleke Teslim and Olayemi Akiloye,
met their waterloo when SARS
operatives swooped on them at various
parts of the state. Olabiyi described
himself as a kid robber who graduated to
a full blown car snatcher. Also arrested
was a 50-year-old woman, Lawal Ireti,
who was described as the gang’s
informant.
Police sources said Ireti provided other
jobs for the gang when they were not
snatching cars. According to the sources,
the woman suspect provided information
to the gang that led to the robbery of
the N8 million from a micro finance bank
in Ogba area of Ikeja.
*Suspects…’We stole N8m from Micro-
Finance Bank’
“The gang specialized in car snatching
and they terrorized Ikeja and environs
for a lng time. They operated during the
weekends and their targets were exotic
cars. Their activities gave the police,
residents and night crawlers in Ikeja
sleepless nights and the state
Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, in
his bid to stem the gang’s operation,
ordered the officer in charge of SARS,
SP, Abba Kyari, to trail and apprehend
the bandits.
Kyari, who swiftly swung into action, sent
undercover operatives into streets to
shop for stolen vehicles. Their efforts
paid off when they stumbled on oen of
the gang members who attempted to
sell a stolen Toyota Camry to the
undercover operatives. He was arrested
and his arrest pave the way for the
arrest of other members of the gang
including Ireti the 50-year-old woman”,
one of the sources told Sunday
Vanguard.
The source added that members of the
gang got wind of the arrest of their
member and they made effort to flee
the country. “We arrested Tolani
Adeyinka, at the South Africa Embassy,
after he had secured a visa to flee the
country. Sadiq Olabiyi was picked up at
Ajah area of the state, he has also
applied for a visa to tavel to Egypt.
Adeleke Teslim and Olayemi Akiloye
were picked separately at Ojo and
Okokomaiko areas of the state,” the
source narrated.
Meanwhile, when Sunday Vanguard
interviewed the suspects at Lagos State
Command Headquarters, Ikeja, they
confessed to the crime, but Olabiyi
blamed his involvement in crime to lack
of prper training. The 27 year-old man
said, “I am the first child of my parents.
My father did not have a good job, which
made us very poor. I was born in Ketu.
As a young boy, I used to go to the
market at Mile 12 to assist some people
selling stolen goats. I usually helped
them to offload the goats from their
vehicles and, from there, I learnt how to
drive.
When I graduated from secondary
school, I joined the business full time. I
stole several goats, I would travel to
some south western states to steal
goats. While I was doing that, I met
Tolani Adeyinka. He and Adeleke Teslim
and one other had started snatching cars
then. They knew I was a good driver; so
they asked me to join them. We stole a
lot of cars together and we operated
mostly in Ikeja, Ogba and Agege areas.
We usually struck weekends when fun
seekers were on the streets grooving
and our targets were mostly Toyota,
Honda and Mercedes Benz cars. We had
ready buyers all over the state and we
would deliver a stolen car to any of the
buyers who make the highest bid. We
sold Toyota cars for N250,000 and Honda
Accord from N300,000. I got between
N100,000 and N150,000 after each
operation, I spent my money on myself, I
bought good clothes, rented an
apartment at Ajah and bought a land at
Ikorodu, where I am building a three-
bedroom flat apartment.
But sometime in July, Ireti brought us a
job where we stolen the sum of N8
million from a micro fiance bank. I don’t
know the name of the bank but she and
a male partner brought the job to us. I
thought they were police informants
trying to set me up and I ignored their
calls from close to two weeks. When I
finally met them at a bar in Ikotun they
told me that they got my phone number
from one of my friends who told them I
could do the job.
The job was at Ikeja and they asked us
to wait soemwhere for the car conveying
the money to pass. Ireti was there to
point the car for us. After she did, we
followed the car alongn Ogba and double
crossed it. I was the one driving. Tolani
Adeyinka and Adeleke Teslim bolted out
with their guns and they snatched the
bag containing the money and all the
occupants’ mobile phones before we
zoomed off. We shared the money
equally, four million naira went to Ireti
and her partner and my gang shared the
rest. I got one million naira as my own
share.”
Source: vanguard

Why is this not on Front page,I saw this story ystd on NL. Oohhhhh,I get now

Every day for the theft.....

Hmmm