Police nab inter-state robbery suspects in Oyo

Oyo State Police Command has arrested three suspected inter-state armed robbers who allegedly stole a Toyota Highlander Sports Utility Vehicle, with registration number LAGOS KJA 418 AW, in Sagamu in Ogun State.

The suspects, according to the Commissioner of Police, Muhammed Katsina were arrested by the Ambush Squad of the command at Iwo road roundabout while on transit to Ikirun in Osun State.

The police chief explained that the suspects had earlier snatched a vehicle from a woman at gunpoint in Sagamu, Ogun State and were driving to Ikirun in Osun state to hand the stolen vehicle over to the receiver.

Katsina named the suspects as Azeez Omotosho, 25, a native of Agbeye, Odo Otin in Osun State, who is resident in Sagamu; Fatai Ademola, 27, a native of Ikirun, In Osun State and resident in GRA Sagamu; as well as Jimoh Quadri, 25, a native of Ede in Osun State and lives in Egbedore in Osun State.

Items recovered from the suspects by the police included one cut-to-size single barrel gun, one kitchen knife, five cartridges, one Samsung duos, one BlackBerry Touch 2, and some criminal charms.

One of the suspects, Jimoh Quadri, who introduced himself as a trained turner but presently a farmer, told reporters that he was invited by his friends to Sagamu from Ede on Saturday for the operation.

He confessed that they trailed the woman to her house at Agura in Sagamu. As she was about driving into the compound, they caught up with her on the motorcycles they rode and snatched the SUV.

His words: “At about 8p.m on Sunday, the leader of the gang came to convey us on okada to the place. We got to the place we were to carry out the task at about 9p.m.At the time we got there, the woman was just being driven in. As the driver opened the gate, our okada went in with her. We asked her to come down and one of us pointed the gun to the young man that drove the SUV.

“The driver surrendered. The woman carried a baby and my colleagues wanted to beat her but I stopped them from doing so. The woman said she was just returning from Lagos where she had gone to carry her grandchild. We entered the car and drove the woman and the driver away from the house. We eventually dropped them at Ogere, along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. That was my first time in Sagamu and that was the first time I participated in armed robbery.”

Another suspect also confessed that Fatai Ademola, the gang’s leader, whom he described as a cultist, drove the SUV from Sagamu to Ijebu Ode and handed it over to him. He was instructed to take the vehicle to Ikirun where a dealer was already waiting for it, adding: “I and Jimoh Quadri were with the car at Ijebu Ode till about4a.m. Then, I called Azeez Omotosho, whom I know as a driver, to come over and help me drive the vehicle to Ikirun. But we were arrested at Iwo Road Roundabout.”