A suspect arrested by the men of the Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command for using a tricycle to rob a television presenter said he was being paid N8,000 by his gang for every operation he participated in.
The suspect, Timileyin Adebayo, 23, in company with three others currently on the run, had on July 12, 2019, while pretending to be passengers in a tricycle, used knives and a cutlass to dispossess a lady of her belongings.
In his confession to the RRS men, Adebayo stated that his gang members were Olabanji, Ahmed and Lekan.
He stated, “The operation was my fifth with the gang. I joined the gang this July and for each of the operations, they gave me N8,000 only. No matter what we made, that was what they gave me maybe, because I just joined the gang. They didn’t treat me as one of them at all.
“I was asked to join the gang after one of the gang members pulled out. They had been operating for a long time before I joined them. I was a bus conductor and I later had no job. They promised to assist me and that was when they invited me to join the gang.
“We rob between Coca Cola on Agidingbi Road and Ogba, and Ikeja and Ogba. We use two knives and a short cutlass. I collect phones and the belongings of our victims.”
The television presenter, who did not want her name in print, stated, “Around 10pm I was standing at the Coca Cola bus stop, when their tricycle came. I boarded it hoping to drop at Ogba.
“They were all men. I didn’t suspect anything, because there were other tricycles there. I noticed that as soon as the driver linked Wempco Road, the two passengers at the back and the one sitting in front brought out knives and a cutlass and threatened to kill me if I did not co-operate with them.
“They collected my two phones, my handbag, jewellery and some money. I can’t even recollect how much it was. They then pushed me out of the moving tricycle.
“As I was struggling to get up to avoid being hit by oncoming vehicles, one motorcyclist assisted me and we went on the trail of the robbers. We caught up with them on Akilo Road, and unfortunately for us, they used their tricycle to hit us.
“This was the point that the RRS patrol team saw us and chased after the robbers. They abandoned their tricycle and fled in different directions, but the RRS men got that one (pointing at Adeoye).”
Recovered from the suspect were the tricycle and a dagger.
The state Commissioner of Police, Zubairu Muazu, in his reaction to the development, directed the transfer of the case to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department and ordered the immediate arrest of other members of the gang.