2 ex-convicts, one other arrested over robbery
Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) have arrested two ex-convicts and one other suspect over a robbery crime in Lekki Phase, Lekki area of Lagos State.
One of the suspects, who was only recently released from the Oke-Kura Prison, Kwara State, on Friday, April 26, 2019, was rearrested on Monday at Lekki, Lagos, along with his colleagues after they allegedly robbed a 25-year-old lady at Lekki Phase 1.
According to the suspect, Emmanuel Michael, 20, “I was released from the OkeKura Prison on Friday. I was imprisoned for almost four years for manslaughter. With the assistance of my brother, I travelled to Alaba Rago, Ojo, in Lagos. It was in that ghetto that I met Mohammed Abubakar, who said I should accompany him to Lekki. He paid both our fares from Ojo to Lekki. He didn’t tell me he was going to rob. He only told me to play along with him.”
Mohammed Abubakar, 25, who is also an ex-convict, while pleading for leniency, admitted he invited Michael and Simeon Michael, 27, out for what he called a student parole.
“We were on a student parole. We saw the lady and our interest was to scare her into parting with her mobile phone. We told her we were Aiye cult members and that the colour of her dress gave her out as a rival cult member.
“I thereafter threatened to kill her on the spot if she didn’t cooperate with me. I took her phone and asked her to get us drinks. As she left to get the drinks, we bolted on a commercial motorcycle. Unfortunately for us, we did not know that an RRS team was patrolling the area. She called for help and they chased us on a motorcycle. They caught up with us at the Lekki Phase 1 gate and this was where the police arrested us.
“In all honesty, we are not cult members. We only used that code to dispossess her of the phone she was holding. What we did is common among teenagers raised in Alaba. It is called student parole,” he said.
Abubakar, who claimed to be a stylist, had once been arrested at Maryland, Lagos, in September 2018 for robbery but was released in December 2018 from the Ikoyi Prison.
“Stealing is the source of my livelihood. I have operated in Lekki, Agege, Bariga, Shitta, Okokomaiko and Maryland, among others,” he confessed.