| Robbers swim in troubled
waters
By Philip Nwosu
Friday July 30, 2004
Luck was not on the side of three suspected armed robbers
last week, as they strayed into the waiting hands of soldiers
on surveilance in the Oshodi area, close to the Ikeja Military
Cantonment in Lagos.
The men, who were waiting for their victim, were armed with
two locally made single barrel guns and were accompanied by
a witch doctor.
Identified as Yekini Salami, 25, Olusegun Olakunle, 31 and
Johnson Adetunji Aiyederin, the men, the Army Public Relations
Officer of the 9th Brigade in Ikeja, Major Hamza Gambo told
Daily Sun, had made some useful confessions that would enable
the police wrap up their investigation.
The Army also recovered from them, an expended ammunition
for double and single barrel rifles.
Major Gambo said they were nabbed following a tip off from
some concerned citizens who had observed the movement of the
men and their activities at the Oshodi area.
He said upon arrest and interrogations, the men confessed
to having committed the offence and have documented such confession
in the statement they made to the officials of the military
police and intelligence operatives of the brigade.
He said: “We were able to arrest these three and we
are making plans to hand them over to the police for prosecution.”
Speaking with Daily Sun, the suspects expectedly denied that
they were criminals and in the midst of tears, said they were
on a mission to cure their sister of demonic infestation.
Olusegun Olakunle said he worked for a construction firm and
had just returned from an assignment in Onitsha, Anambra State.
“My Sister-in-law is sick. She had mental illness and
she had been confined to Aro, and I went to bring this medicine
man to treat her. I do not know anything about this gun that
I am having, I have not used a gun before in my life,”
he said.
He revealed that he also belonged to the Frederick Fasehun
faction of the O’odua Peoples Congress (OPC) in Mushin
and had never been involved in criminal activities.
But Major Gambo told Daily Sun that the OPC had already denied
them, saying that the leader of the organisation was brought
to identify them, “but when he came here he looked at
them and said he had never seen them before.”
The Brigade PRO said that the OPC leader also criticised the
suspects for being in possession of dangerous weapons saying
that it remains illegal for any outfit other than the military
and the police to possess arms.
The officer told Daily Sun that the men were hiding the weapons
under an object which they sat on trying to deceive the people
and the law enforcement personnel that the weapons were not
their own.
Olakunle who said he graduated from Lagos State College of
Education in Epe, with a National Certificate of Education
(NCE) lamented the problem he had involved himself in.
He cried like a baby saying, “I have spoilt my family
name. I do not know what to tell my family now.”
Aiyederin said he came to Lagos to make charms for a certain
woman when he was contacted by Olakunle.
He broke down in tears when he was confronted with the fact
that his family would only read about his misdeeds in the
papers and view him on television.
However, the PRO told Daily Sun that the men would be handed
over to the police for prosecution.
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