We Operated As Three Different Gangs Coordinated By a Grand Commander

An ex-convict, Sunday Bassey (23), arrested with four others for armed robbery has regretted his inability to quit the trade before his arrest because he feared that he could become an object of attack by other members of the gang. Other members of the gang, who are still active as armed robbers, he said, would see him as a threat and could resort to eliminating him. He also said he feared that they might implicate him whenever they were caught.

The other four suspected members of the gang..........

arrested by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Lagos State Police Command include Abbas Lukmon (19), Oyifara Toyin (23), Kojo Richard (21) and Adebayo Femi (23). The others still at large include the alleged leader of the gang, Isiaka, and one Chukwuma a.k.a. Goodnews. The police claimed they recovered three locally made pistols and 23 rounds of live ammunition from the gang. Police sources said the gang had been involved in more than robbery operations before five of its members were arrested.

Confessing his roles in the gang’s activities, Sunday Bassey said: “I am from Eket village in Uyo Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State. I am a bus driver and ex-convict. I was once sentenced to the Kirikiri Maximum Prison where I spent 10 months before I bought my freedom. My lawyer perfected my release, but I spent my life savings for that arrangement before I regained my freedom.

“I would have resigned from armed robbery, but my colleagues would not let me go. They continued to tell me to accompany them to robbery operations, and you know the grave consequence of avoiding them when they need you. They may not only try to implicate you whenever they are arrested, they may also come after you to kill you so that you will not be a threat to the continued existence of the gang. They would think that once you resign, you will likely become an informant to the police.

“We have three different gangs. The first is based at Oyingbo (Lagos) and is led by Muri Eteh. They are about four in the gang. The second is based at Ikotun (Lagos) led by one Chukwuma a.k.a. Goodnews. The third is based at Ketu (Lagos) led by Isiaka, the grand commander of the three gangs.”

Asked what items the gangs specialised in stealing, he said: “We rob people and traders who sell food items like rice, garri, beans, melon, palm oil and stock fish, among others. We also rob fuel attendants at filling stations. We rob pharmaceutical shops, supermarkets and recharge card outlets where we are likely to get big money.

“In the Ketu gang, we are only seven, including myself, Isiaka the gang leader and grand commander of the three independent gangs, Lukman, Toyin, Kojo and Femi. I have participated in many robbery operations. The first operation I participated in when I came back from prison was at Alapere.

We robbed three times at Alapere. The first place was a pharmaceutical shop. We were four and got N40,000; myself, Kojo, Femi and Toyin. Each of us got N10,000 because the money was shared equally. The second place was a shop where the shop owner held my colleague at the waist and I shot him in the hand to free my colleague. We could not get a dime from the shop because the shop attendant said his boss had already come to collect the day’s sales before we arrived. I fired the victim because he held my commander, Isiaka.

“Another place where we operated was at a filling station in Ikotun. We threatened the fuel attendants with gun and robbed them of the day’s sales. From the first pump, we got N35, 000, while we got N25,000 from the second pump.

“At Alapere, we robbed rice sellers but could not get a kobo because their master had come to collect the whole sales before we arrived there. We also robbed a provision shop at Alapere. We went into the shop and pretended that we wanted to buy table water. As the man went to bring the table water, I rushed at him with my short gun and ordered him to lie face down while Isiaka ordered his visitor, at gun point, to also lie face down. He collected the visitor’s two Black Berry phones while I collected the sales money, about N95, 000. Isiaka also collected the visitor’s N50, 000. Other members of the gang filled their pockets with assorted hot drinks, choice wine and other provisions. We also took some bottles of beer before we left. It was a 30-minute operation.

“At Ikotun, we robbed recharge card sellers. We got N50,000 worth of recharge cards. It was a successful operation. I sent my own share of the stolen recharge cards (about N10, 000) to my colleague, Rasheed, who was still serving his jail term in Ikoyi Prison to sell and feed himself.

“There were three members of the gang who held guns. I bought my gun for N20, 000. It was Isiaka that bought it for me. Isiaka has his own gun and Muri Eteh also has his own gun. They are all locally made guns.”

Asked how the gang got information on their victims, he said: “We have our members in most of the places we robbed. It was either they live there or they usually visited such places and knew the terrain very well. At times, they accompanied us to carry out the operations. At Ikotun, we have up to three boys. I can remember Chukwuma and the one we call Goodnews. I don’t know the name the others.

“The important thing is that we know our members. Their names are not important, for security reasons, and that is why some of us prefer to be called by our alias so that if the police declare us wanted, we can start answering our real names or another alias.

“I know Abbas. He is my friend. But he is not a full member of our gang. He only keeps our operational guns for us. When we want to rob, he brings the guns, and after operation, he hid the guns for us and we always rewarded him handsomely. At times, he played the role of an informant by spying on the police and making friends with them in order to get information that would frustrate any attempt to track us down. At times, we gave him N5, 000, N10, 000 or more, depending on how much we got from an operation. At other times, we didn’t give him anything, particularly when market is bad.”

The second suspect, Abbas Lukman, said: “I am from Ife, Osun State. But I am based at Ketu, Lagos State where I worked at a barbing salon. My boss paid me according to how many heads I barber in a day. I got between N1, 000 and N1, 500 per day. Customers also gave me money, especially rich men. Some gave me as much as N1, 000, so there were days I went home with N5, 000. But I spent most of my money on prostitutes, drinks, clothes and friends.

It was one of my friends/customers, Sunday Bassey, who introduced me to the gang by giving me their guns to keep for them. One day, I was barbing for one of our customers when Sunday on a motorcycle called me to take one polythene bag and keep for him. I collected the bag.

“At the close of work around 10 pm, I opened the bag to see its content and found three locally made pistols and some live cartridges. Surprised, I called him and asked him what the guns were meant for and he told me not to worry; that he would come and collect them for a job and that I would benefit from it later. He said he would collect a lot of money with the ATM. I asked him to explain what he meant by ATM and he said that was what his gang’s members call guns, because they used it to collect money easily from victims.

“They used to give me N2, 000. Sometimes, they give me N5, 000, depending on what they had in mind to give me any time they wanted to collect the guns or hand over the guns for safe keeping. It was when I discovered that they used to share big money after each operation that I decided to be accompanying them to operations. It was then that I started getting big money from them, like N10, 000, N20, 000, depending on what we get from each operation.

“The first day I kept the guns, he (Sunday) gave me N2, 000. The second one was at Demurin Road, Ketu. He gave me a polythene bag and N4,000. The third one, he met me and dashed me N5, 000 and I gave him the guns. The fourth, which was the last one, he called me on the phone and asked where I was. I told him that I was at the barbing salon attending to customers. He insisted that I should come. I told him that I would not come and he gave the poly bag to one of my friends to give to me. His name is Chukwuman, the gang member that is still at large.

“The next day, I saw Sunday with the police in my shop and I was told that I was under arrest for armed robbery. I regret being arrested because I did not save any money since I joined the gang. When I was doing my barbing work alone, I used to make N2, 000 to N3, 000 every day after I had delivered N 5, 000 to my master. For the number of months I worked in the salon I saved a reasonable sum. But since I joined the armed robbery gang, I have not saved a dime and I have nothing to show for the high risk in the armed robbery job I plunged myself into.”

The third suspect, Oyifara Toyin, a native of Ilaorogun, Osun State, confessed his role thus: “I am a commercial motorcycle rider. I used to carry the members to robbery scenes. I participated in two operations only. The first one was at Ikotun where we robbed recharge card dealers. We got N70, 000 worth of recharge cards. I was given N10, 000 worth of recharge cards as my own share.

“I also followed them to rob a filling station in Ikotun. Unfortunately, the vigilante people pursued us, and as we were running with our motorcycle, we had an accident and abandoned our motorcycle to enable us escape. Sunday also said we lost all the money while trying to escape from the angry mob at the accident point.

“He asked me where I was and I told him that I was at home. He said he would come and see me in the morning, being a Friday. I told him that I was no more interested in armed robbery and that I would like to be left alone. He said I should not worry, that he himself had also decided to quit but had one thing to discuss with me. To my greatest surprise, he came with SARS operatives and they told me that I was under arrest for conspiracy and armed robbery.

“I had stopped doing robbery with them since December 23, 2012. I left them because of the motorcycle I lost in the operation I got accident in while trying to escape. I was with Richard. When I left, they replaced me with Adebayo Femi.”

The fourth suspect, Kojo Richard, said: “I am from Ilaorogun village in Osun State. I am a commercial motorcycle rider. My role is to carry gang member to operation points and back. They used to tell me that my spirit was not good and that it brought bad luck to the gang. So, they ended up not giving me a kobo.

“Luckily, in the first operation, they gave me N10, 000. From the second operation, I got N3, 000. But from the last one, I did not get a dime.”

Asked why he left his motorcycle business to join the gang, he said: “I brought my motorcycle with hire purchase. When I was about to complete payment, motorcycle snatchers drugged me and collected the motorcycle. I started looking for who would give me another motorcycle to ride and make weekly returns.

“That was my situation when Sunday met me and told me that he had a good job for me. I asked how and he told me to join their gang. Being frustrated, I accepted to join them.”

The fifth suspect, Femi, says he is a native of Ilaro, Ogun State, and a commercial motorcycle rider. “I got N1, 500 and at times N2, 000 daily. But the owner of the motorcycle set me up and my motorcycle was stolen. Isiaka gave me a motorcycle to use and make a monthly delivery of N1,000.

“After one month, he asked me to take him to Ikotun Petrol Station to rob the fuel attendants. We collected money that day and my share was N15, 000. In the second operation at Ikotun Petrol Station, I was given N3, 700. From the third operation at Alapere where people sell rice, we did not get anything.

“The last one we went to was at Oriola, Ketu, Alapere.”

One of the victims, Francis Okorie (33), a supermarket operator shot by the robbers on the left arm at his Alapere shop, said: “The robbers were heartless. They thought that the shots had killed me because I fell on the ground and became unconscious.”

Other victims who pleaded anonymity said the police should not allow them to come back alive because they had killed many people, including policemen.

Their words: “See how they shot that man selling provision. They meant to kill him but he survived by the grace of God. Leaving them to come back will endanger our lives. Kill all of them.

“Some of them are ex-convicts. They can never repent. Rather, they grow from worse to worst. They constitute worse nuisance when they are allowed to come back. They don’t have value for human lives. Kill them or leave them in prison for life.

“People who solicit for their human rights are benefitting from their crime. They are worse criminals.”

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Dr. Mike Okiro, has said he would direct the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed D. Abubakar, to look out for police officers and men who have done police proud by performing gallantry and arrange them for special promotion to encourage hard work and courage.

He made this remark on the occasion of the unveiling of Jonathan Housing Estate at Idimu, Lagos by the President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan recently.