**Confrontation with serial church
robbers: Fear of God meant nothing to us!

**Will a man rob God? … – Malachi 3:8

To Akinbode Theophilus (30),Waidi
Folorunso (27) and Wasiu Olusola (31), the
answer to the question above is possibly,
yes. They are in police net accused of
robbing a church, among others. The
robbed church is located at Ijegun-Ikotun,
Lagos. And it wasn’t only once that the
church was robbed.
Robbers attacked the church on three
separate occasions during which they
carted away items, the most valuable of
which were musical instruments valued at
hundreds of thousands of Naira. The
musical instruments were believed tobe
the target of the robbers and the other
items, secondary.

The trio of Theophilus, Folorunso and
Olusola were said to have confessed to
police interrogators that they were behind the serial robbery attacks on the church.

Sources close to the interrogators also
quoted the suspects as admitting to
carrying out attacks on some other
churches in Lagos and Ibadan.
God, in Malachi 3:8, puts those robbing
him, this timeof tithes and offerings,
undera curse. If it is proven that
Theophilus, Folorunso and Olusola carried out the church robberies, then they may never escape the curse of God; unless theyseek genuine repentance. The suspects
arrest is as dramatic as it is mysterious.
Many attributed it to nemesisand God at
work.

They had allegedly broken into the
headquarters of the Kingdom Zone of the
Redeemed Christian Church of God,
Ifelodun Street, Ijegun – Ikotun in the
early hours of April 5, 2013. They entered
the church auditorium, broke the iron cage
inside which the musical instruments were
secured and removed them. Not done yet,
they broke intothe church offices and
ransacked them, apparently looking for
cash and valuables.
Two of them – Theophilus and Folorunso-
allegedly chartered a tricycle to
conveytheir loot and had successfully
escaped from the area. The suspects were
said to be transferring the musical
instruments from thetricycle into another
one at Ikotun roundabout, some five
kilometers from scene ofrobbery – around
5 a.m. – when a police patrol team noted
their suspicious movements and accosted
them.

A police source said they toldthe patrol
team they were musicians coming from a
night engagement. Not convinced, the
police team, led by one Inspector Ahmed,
reportedly, asked the suspects to take
them to the venue of the engagement to
confirm their story. Then, onclose scrutiny
of the musical instruments, the policemen
found the name of the church engraved on
them.

The game was up. Folorunso allegedly tried
to bolt away. He knocked down one of
thepolicemen in the process. But as he
dashed across the road, an oncoming
tricycle knocked him down, instantly
demobilising him. Both suspects –
Theophilus and Folorunso – were arrested
and taken to the scene of robbery. They
allegedly confessed to the crime and told
the police that they had another colleague
working with them.

The suspects also allegedly named a
marketer at Oshodi who had been helping
them to sell their loot. The two suspects
were held at IkotunDivisional Police
Station. Some officers at the station gave
the credit for the arrest to the DPO, CSP
Austines Akika, who, according to them,
insists on ridding the area of criminal
elements..
Items allegedly recovered from the
suspects were the church musical
instruments, a saw, two iron bars, a master
key and a padlock. Theophilus an Folorunso
were later taken to the Special Anti-
Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja where further
investigations yielded the arrest of the
third suspect, Olusola. Olusola is said to be
an ‘insider’ in the Ijegun church who
facilitated the robbery.
The alleged marketer to the suspects was
said to be on the run. Theophilus told
Sunday Vanguard that he was not resident
in Lagos, and that he came in from
Abeokuta where he claimed to be a
teacher. He claimed to be a university
graduate.
According to the suspect, he is married
with a child. Indeed, the police took him to
a high profile hotel where he claimed to be
lodging in Ikotun area to corroborate his
statement, and he was found to be paying
N6,000 per night there. Asked if he did not
fear God as to go to achurch to rob,
Theophilus, a Christian, said he feared
God,but that, that fear paled into
insignificance when the survival of his
family was at stake.