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Commercial bus robbery gangs apprehended
By
Femi Ogbonnikan
Reporter,
Lagos
The Police in Lagos last week arrested a
gang of armed robbery suspects that specialises in operating in commercial
buses in the metropolis.
According to Police sources, members of
the gang popularly referred to as catch-in-the-air robbers, were arrested by a
team of Operation Fire-for-Fire Policemen attached to the Shomolu Divisional
Station, while operating at Obanikoro Bus Stop, along Ikorodu Road.
The sources added that the Police acted on
a tip off.
The suspects, it was learnt, abandoned
their operational vehicle with registration number XH 598 AGL and took to their
heels when they sighted the team of Policemen.
Luck however ran out of a member of the
syndicate, the driver of the bus as he was arrested.
A search of the bus produced four live
cartridges and the sum of N5, 000, which was feared snatched from victims, were
recovered.
The identity of the suspect could not be
immediately ascertained as at press time.
In a similar development, the Police also
apprehended another gang of catch-in-the-air robbery suspects operating along
Aswani market road.
A source hinted that the suspects were
caught operating in a commercial bus with registration number AA 355 BGT by a
team of Operation Fire-for-Fire policemen attached to Area ‘D’
Command, while on a routine patrol along Aswani market road.
However, the swift response of the squad
to the scene of attack led to the arrest of a member of the gang identified as
Efosa Imaria, while five others escaped.
Also, a robbery suspect, who specialises
in snatching motorcycles from their riders, is currently cooling his feet in
Police net.
The suspect, Mallam Abubakar, our reporter
gathered, was nabbed at Speco Mill, Ikeja Industrial Estate by a team of Operation
Fire-for-Fire policemen on routine patrol of the area, while he attempted to
snatch a motorcycle from one Ola Lukman.
It was learnt that the suspect, who
operated with another suspect, now at large, stabbed the motorcyclist in the
stomach in an attempt to snatch the motorcycle.
Meanwhile, men of Ikoyi Divisional Police
Station have arrested four armed robbery suspects.
A team of Operation Fire-for-Fire
Policemen from Ikoyi Division, Lagos, following a tip-off, arrested the four
suspects, who are members of a gang terrorising residents of Dolphin Estate,
Ikoyi, using speedboats.
The arrested suspects were identified as
Bode Haruna, Isiaka Adedeji, Toun Esan and Ihiasu Agala, while two others
escaped.
Eleven cartridges were recovered from the
suspects.
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