Police Disguised as Civilians, Arrest Traffic Robbers in Lagos
Chiemelie Ezeobi
Acting on intelligence some operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command at the weekend, disguised themselves as civilians in a bid to arrest some traffic robbers at the Ajah area of the state.
When the two-man syndicate was smashed they confessed how their gang specialised in dispossessing motorists on the Lekki –Ajah Expressway of their valuables whenever there was traffic snarl.
The suspects, Biodun Omoyeni, 22, from Ibadan, Oyo State, and the buyer, Oladeinde Oresegun, said what their six-man traffic robbery gang does was to distract the driver with tales of a flat tyre while another member of the gang would pick up valuables from the other side of the driver’s seat.
Omoyeni said through this method, his gang had stolen more than 19 phones and three laptops in four robbery operations in Lekki-Ajah traffic.
He said his partner and gang leader, Rasaq, still at large, trained him and four other boys on how to steal mobile phones and valuables in traffic and on motorbikes in Mushin.
He said: “Rasaq is a meat seller at Sabo, Ikorodu. He is homeless and we have been to four operations together. We stole up to 19 phones in those operations. We always operate in Ajah.”
“We meet in Mushin and Ojuelegba whenever we want to operate before heading to Lekki and Ajah for our operations. We conduct for commercial buses and we use that to monitor traffic till 7p.m. to 7.30p.m. when it has built up before we start operating.
“Once there is traffic, we strategise and we start operating. One of us from the driver side tells the motorist that the tyre is punctured while the other person through the window takes the phones, money, wallets, pad and other valuables from the other side of the driver.
“I am not an armed robber. It was Rasaq that introduced me to all these. It is all because we are normally together all the time. I was a tyre seller in Ibadan before I decided to follow a friend to Lagos in search of greener pasture.”
One of the robbery victims, Paul Eugene, a music instructor, whose phones were found with Omoyeni and returned to him yesterday, thanked the RRS for recovering his phones in less than three hours after being robbed in traffic.
Eugene said one of the suspects distracted him from focusing on his driving that his rear tyre was flat but on checking it, he noticed nothing, but he observed other motorists rolling up their glasses in traffic.
He said: “I didn’t know Omoyeni from the other side of my car had taken my phones and some money. I was still in the car when a fellow motorist told me that they had stolen my phones.
“I was surprised about two hours after the incident to see a neighbour knocking at my door that the RRS called that I should come and pick up my phones and that the suspects had been arrested.”
The suspect alongside the buyer has been transferred to Special Anti- Robbery Squad (SARS) Headquarters in Ikeja.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badu, a Superintendent of Police, confirmed the arrest, adding that there would be no reprieve for criminals in the state.