‘Land speculators hire us to do their dirty jobs’

Four suspects, who the police alleged were arrested for robbery, said they were thugs that land speculators hired whenever there were dirty jobs to be done. The Lagos State Police Command said the suspects, who they identified as Rasheed Odetola, 25; John Zion, 23; Damilare Salami, 20; and 25-year-old Dayo Adeboye, were arrested in connection […]

Four suspects, who the police alleged were arrested for robbery, said they were thugs that land speculators hired whenever there were dirty jobs to be done.

The Lagos State Police Command said the suspects, who they identified as Rasheed Odetola, 25; John Zion, 23; Damilare Salami, 20; and 25-year-old Dayo Adeboye, were arrested in connection with a robbery incident at the Mayfair Garden, Awoyaya, Ibeju Lekki area of the state.

“We are thugs and not robbers. We were responsible for the series of land-related wars at Lekki and Ajah,” Odetola told operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), who arrested him and the three other suspects.

The police said they recovered a locally-made  pistol, four unexpended cartridges and one of the phones the suspects stole at the robbery scene from them.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, said yesterday that the Command would thoroughly investigate all the criminal activities associated with the gang.

The suspects were said to have claimed in their statements that they were using the recovered pistol in land wars.

Odetola, who the police described as the gang’s leader, said, “We are not armed robbers. It is true that the gun was found on us. We are land grabbers’ thugs. We were using the gun to protect ourselves against our opponents, as well as when engaging in other battles.

“Sincerely, what caused the clash is what I don’t know. I only saw three boys beating one of us and we could not fold our arms and allow them to beat him. That was why we supported him in fighting the people.

“After we had been separated by some elders in the community, one of the boys started shouting that we had taken his phone. They ran back to where we were standing, insisting that we could not leave. They collected our phones and money from us.

“Unfortunately, after searching us, the Techno phone was recovered from one of us. Then, they started beating us again, saying we were armed robbers. We were taken to the Elemoro police station at Ajah, where we were searched and a locally made gun was found on us.”

Adeboye, who maintained he was innocent, said he was escorting his three other friends away from his house about 10pm when a fight broke out between them and some boys residing in the area.

He said, “I was only escorting them to get a bike that will take them to the bus stop where they will board a bus, because it was late, when the fight started. What caused the fight, I still don’t know up till now. I was stopping the fight when one of the boys stabbed me and Rasheed. Immediately I was stabbed, I left the scene.”

Zion admitted that the stolen phone was found on him but claimed he picked it from the floor during the clash between them and their adversaries.