Luck ran out on two armed robbery suspects in Lagos recently when a housewife recognised one of them months after they robbed her family.

The incident happened at Egbeda area of Lagos on April 10 this year. The suspects, Idowu Salihu, 30, and Saheed Onitoro, 23, and other members of their gang robbed the family of money, jewellery, household goods and their Pathfinder SUV. The suspects were arrested on July 12, 2010, when the woman (name withheld), who had gone to the market at Agege to buy some food stuffs, recognised Mr Salihu as one of the armed men who had robbed her family in April. She contacted the Shasha Police Station, and Mr Salihu was promptly arrested. After the case was transferred to the Armed Robbery Unit of the State Criminal Investigation Department at Panti, Yaba, David Aremu, a deputy commissioner of police in charge of the unit, acted on a tip-off and led his officers to Ibadan and other parts of the states (Lagos and Oyo), leading to the arrest of other members of the gang. The team also discovered an arms dump in the Honda Accord Car the gang members used for their operation.

Police spokesperson, Frank Mba, said the suspects belong to an armed robbery gang who specialised in stealing exotic cars in the state. “The suspects and other members of their gang had carried out several armed robbery operations in the state before luck ran out on them,” he said. “When the case was transferred to Panti, a discreet investigation was conducted and the officers discovered yet another ingenious method used by these suspects to conceal arms and ammunition in the door mat of the Honda Accord saloon car they use for their operation. It was like having a mobile armoury in an automobile. The police recovered a military assorted rifle, two cut-to-size single barrel locally made pistol, 22 rounds of .6mm live ammunition, and five live cartridges.”

Reasons and regret

One of the suspects, Mr Onitoro, was arrested for car theft last year and was imprisoned at the Maximum Prison at Kirikiri for eight months before he was released in December. “I am the first born of my family and I have six siblings,” he said. “I used to do rewire at Alagbado but money was not coming for me to meet all my family needs. I have a wife and two children and my extended family rely on me for money. When things became tough, I met with my man, called Gbenga, and he was the one that introduced me to this crime. I was imprisoned at the Maximum Prison, at Kirkiri (for car theft) for eight months. It was at Kirikiri I met another armed robbery gang that specialised in stealing exotic cars, so after I was released from the prison December last year, I decided to call the guys I met in prison, because they too were released, so that was how we started robbing again. My job is to help sell the stolen cars to people. The last robbery we went, I got N40,000 as my share. It is my family problem that made me an armed robber.”

Mr Salihu, a father of two from Ogun State, said he went into armed robbery after he was duped of the sum of N1.2 million. “I used to be a very big shoe maker in Ibadan,” he said. “But after I was duped of all my life savings, [to] the sum of N1.2 million, I came to Lagos to start all over. While at a beer parlour at Iju- Ishaga, I met a man called Tunde and he was the one who introduced me to armed robbers; we have carried out three armed robbery operations before I was arrested. I am the one who drives the Honda car that has the weapons. I feel bad about my evil ways.”

Mr Mba said the case is under investigation and called on the public to assist the police with useful information that will help their investigation.


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