The Ogun State Police Command has smashed a robbery gang which specialised in snatching exotic cars from unsuspecting eminent personalities, arresting its armourer. Among those attacked by members of the gang were former professional footballer, Segun Odegbami.

The ace footballer was attacked two years ago around Wasimi area, a boarder town between Itori and Obada Oko in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, with his car snatched. Members of the notorious gang were reportedly also responsible for the attack on retired Primate of Anglican Church, Rev. Peter Jasper Akinola, on December 24, 2013 at Aro, Abeokuta.

While these ones were dispossessed of their valuables and their cars snatched, same could not be said of driver of Rector of ICT Polytechnic, Abeokuta, D.S. Adegbenro, simply identified as Musibau, whose life was snuffed out by a bullet from the dreaded gang.

The late Musibau, Crime Guard gathered, was conveying his boss and the institution’s Bursar, when the bandits intercepted the Toyota Hilux car at Papalanto area of the state, in March 2013. They reportedly fired some shots into the car, when the driver’s attempt to escape. In the process, a bullet hit Musibau. The Bursar was said to have sustained bullet wounds while the Rector escaped unhurt.

Not done, the armed gang reportedly snatched the vehicle but abandoned it a distance away, owing to the tracking devise installed. Same month, the gang reportedly struck again. This time around, it was at Osupori area of the state.

They reportedly chased a commercial bus to the spot and ordered everyone to come down and lie flat on the road. Their target was reportedly the business woman who, according to police sources, was trailed. They reportedly shot her dead, after forcefully collecting an unspecified huge amount of money from her. Her three-month-old baby that was strapped to her back was said to have been kept aside by a member of the gang while the operation lasted.

Acting on a tip-off, policemen were said to have stormed the Owode area of the state, where a suspected member of the gang who had been on the command’s wanted list was arrested. However, during interrogation, the 29-year-old suspect, Rasak Adeyinka, stated that he had never participated in any operation with members of the gang. Though he admitted he knew them, he said he only kept their weapons.

Hear the father of three: “I do not rob. I only kept weapons for robbers. After each operation, they would bring the weapons to me to keep. I usually kept them at Odo-Seje, along Ajilete Road, Owode. They are concealed in a bag and thereafter, I would use weeds to cover them.

At the end of each operation, I was paid N40,000. I kept weapons for four different robbery gangs. The police only recovered an AK 47 riffle with three magazines and a Baretta pistol from me. The weapons belong to a particular gang”, he said. Spokesman for the Ogun State Police Command, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said the police was still on the trail of other fleeing members of the gang, assuring that they would get them.



http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/06/ogun-state-notorious-robbery-syndicate-smashed/

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