Operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery
Squad, SARS, in Lagos State, have
arrested a gang of car snatchers
suspected of terrorizing Ikeja and other
parts of the state for a long time. The
suspects, Sadiq Olayibi, Tolani Adeyinka,
Adeleke Teslim and Olayemi Akiloye, met
their waterloo when SARS operatives
swooped on them at various parts of the
state. Olabiyi described himself as a kid
robber who graduated to a full blown car
snatcher. Also arrested was a 50-year-old
woman, Lawal Ireti, who was described as
the gang’s informant.
Police sources said Ireti provided other
jobs for the gang when they were not
snatching cars. According to the sources,
the woman suspect provided information
to the gang that led to the robbery of the
N8 million from a micro finance bank in
Ogba area of Ikeja.
*Suspects…’We stole N8m from Micro-
Finance Bank’
“The gang specialized in car snatching
and they terrorized Ikeja and environs for
a lng time. They operated during the
weekends and their targets were exotic
cars. Their activities gave the police,
residents and night crawlers in Ikeja
sleepless nights and the state
Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, in
his bid to stem the gang’s operation,
ordered the officer in charge of SARS, SP,
Abba Kyari, to trail and apprehend the
bandits.
Kyari, who swiftly swung into action, sent
undercover operatives into streets to
shop for stolen vehicles. Their efforts
paid off when they stumbled on oen of
the gang members who attempted to sell
a stolen Toyota Camry to the undercover
operatives. He was arrested and his arrest
pave the way for the arrest of other
members of the gang including Ireti the
50-year-old woman”, one of the sources
told Sunday Vanguard.
The source added that members of the
gang got wind of the arrest of their
member and they made effort to flee the
country. “We arrested Tolani Adeyinka, at
the South Africa Embassy, after he had
secured a visa to flee the country. Sadiq
Olabiyi was picked up at Ajah area of the
state, he has also applied for a visa to
tavel to Egypt. Adeleke Teslim and
Olayemi Akiloye were picked separately at
Ojo and Okokomaiko areas of the state,”
the source narrated.
Meanwhile, when Sunday Vanguard
interviewed the suspects at Lagos State
Command Headquarters, Ikeja, they
confessed to the crime, but Olabiyi
blamed his involvement in crime to lack
of prper training. The 27 year-old man
said, “I am the first child of my parents.
My father did not have a good job, which
made us very poor. I was born in Ketu. As
a young boy, I used to go to the market at
Mile 12 to assist some people selling
stolen goats. I usually helped them to
offload the goats from their vehicles and,
from there, I learnt how to drive.
When I graduated from secondary school,
I joined the business full time. I stole
several goats, I would travel to some
south western states to steal goats. While
I was doing that, I met Tolani Adeyinka.
He and Adeleke Teslim and one other had
started snatching cars then. They knew I
was a good driver; so they asked me to
join them. We stole a lot of cars together
and we operated mostly in Ikeja, Ogba
and Agege areas.
We usually struck weekends when fun
seekers were on the streets grooving and
our targets were mostly Toyota, Honda
and Mercedes Benz cars. We had ready
buyers all over the state and we would
deliver a stolen car to any of the buyers
who make the highest bid. We sold Toyota
cars for N250,000 and Honda Accord
from N300,000. I got between N100,000
and N150,000 after each operation, I
spent my money on myself, I bought good
clothes, rented an apartment at Ajah and
bought a land at Ikorodu, where I am
building a three-bedroom flat apartment.
But sometime in July, Ireti brought us a
job where we stolen the sum of N8 million
from a micro fiance bank. I don’t know
the name of the bank but she and a male
partner brought the job to us. I thought
they were police informants trying to set
me up and I ignored their calls from close
to two weeks. When I finally met them at
a bar in Ikotun they told me that they got
my phone number from one of my
friends who told them I could do the job.
The job was at Ikeja and they asked us to
wait soemwhere for the car conveying the
money to pass. Ireti was there to point
the car for us. After she did, we followed
the car alongn Ogba and double crossed
it. I was the one driving. Tolani Adeyinka
and Adeleke Teslim bolted out with their
guns and they snatched the bag
containing the money and all the
occupants’ mobile phones before we
zoomed off. We shared the money
equally, four million naira went to Ireti
and her partner and my gang shared the
rest. I got one million naira as my own
share
Source Vanguard
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