Afeez Hanafi

A thirty-two-year-old vulcaniser, Jelili Dimeji, has been remanded in prison custody for allegedly leading a 30-man gang to rob his neighbour, Oladipupo Audu, of property valued at N1,750,000.

The suspect and the victim live in Isheri Osun, in the Ijegun area of Lagos.
PUNCH Metro learnt that Audu and a friend were driving on Ijegun Road when Dimeji and his gang member, who are still at large, waylaid them.

They were said to have snatched Audu’s Toyota Camry, dispossessed him of gold jewellery worth about N1,450,000 and a cash sum of N300,000. The car was later recovered at a junction by policemen attached to the Rapid Response Squad.

Audu told the police that the suspect cautioned his cohorts, who wanted to kill him because they (he and Dimeji) live in the same area.

He said, “My friend and I were going to buy a ram and foodstuffs around 5am on September 24 when we saw some men flagging down my car. They were about 30 in number. They wanted to kill me, but Jelili (Dimeji) cautioned them and told them we were brothers in the community.

“They collected my car, gold necklace, two gold rings a gold bracelet and a sum of N300,000. But the car has been recovered.”
Dimeji was arrested on October 7 by policemen from the Isheri Osun division after a robbery operation and was transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Ikeja. A locally-made gun, phones and two Automated Teller Machine cards were said to have been recovered from him.

He was subsequently arraigned on two counts of robbery by a police prosecutor, Inspector Benson Emuerhi, before an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court.

The charges read in part, “That you, Jelili Dimeji, and others now at large on October 7, 2015 at about 03.20hrs at Isheri Osun, Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did conspire to commit felony to with: armed robbery, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 297 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011.”

Dimeji’s plea was not taken by the presiding Chief Magistrate, Mrs. A.O. Olayinka, who directed that the case file be duplicated and sent to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions for legal advice.

Olayinka ordered that the defendants should be remanded in prison custody pending the release of legal advice from the DPP.

The case was adjourned till January 28, 2015.

lalasticlala