How we used military uniform to beat police checkpoints – robbery suspect

A suspected member of an armed robbery gang allegedly operating in military uniform in Lagos State, Jimoh Momodu Tunde, has said the uniform was what he and his colleagues were using to ease their way through any police checkpoint after they had robbed. The police alleged Tunde and his gang members were perpetrating their robbery […]

A suspected member of an armed robbery gang allegedly operating in military uniform in Lagos State, Jimoh Momodu Tunde, has said the uniform was what he and his colleagues were using to ease their way through any police checkpoint after they had robbed.

The police alleged Tunde and his gang members were perpetrating their robbery operations in the Mushin, Ejigbo, Ikotun and Igando areas of the state using motorcycles and tricycles.

A source at the Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Yaba, Lagos, told our correspondent that a police team led by the Divisional Police Officer, Ejigbo police station, Olabisi Okuwobi, arrested the suspect last Friday along the NNPC junction, Ejigbo, after the gang had successfully dispossessed a passenger of a mobile phone and were escaping.

Two other members of the gang were said to have escaped with bullet wounds during exchange of gunfire with the police team.

The police source said that the suspect, an Ibadan, Oyo State, indigene, who was said have come to Lagos in 2001 and was residing at the Amukoko area of Lagos before his arrest, stated in his confessional statement that he was a trained automobile mechanic and was introduced into robbery by his friends Sunday and Nonso, who are now at large.

“I usually come to Ejigbo with my gang in a tricycle to rob passengers, and we have done that many times. I made between N6,000 and N7,000 whenever we went out for an operation. I did not know that one day I will be caught,” Tunde was quoted to have said.

On how he was caught, the suspect said they had successfully robbed a passenger of his phone and were escaping in their tricycle when its tyre got punctured and the victim raised an alarm.

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer Bala Elkana, confirmed the arrest and said that Tunde had made a useful statement the police were using in their investigation, while efforts were on to trace the members of the gang who escaped.