The Rapid Response Squad in the Lagos State Police has arrested seven suspected robbers, who belong to a group called the “Wazobia gang”.
RRS made the arrests known on its Twitter handle, where it shared photos of the suspects as well as the weapons collected from them.
The syndicate was believed to have been terrorising College Road, Fagba and Abattoir areas of the state.
In the statement shared on the Facebook page of the police unit, the robbers were arrested on Valentine’s day around 9pm at College Road, Ifako–Ijaiye area of Lagos, after the gang had robbed more than five passers-by of their valuables brandishing knives and other harmful objects.
The names of the suspects are, Lekan Akinyemi (23), Chimeze Ofulie( 18), Babangida Abdullahi (22), Abubakar Umaru (30), Samuel Oyinloye (24), Timileyin Oladipupo (27) and Habeeb Olayinka.
All the suspects said they came from different parts of the country but reside in Abattoir, Agege, Lagos.
The suspects had on Thursday, robbed one Agafe Augustine after he alighted from a taxi at College Road, Ifako Ijaiye. Amongst the items collected from him were; an android phone, N14,000 and a handbag.
According to Agafe, “I allowed them to rob me because they were many and were holding dangerous objects but I trailed them to an open place before raising alarm. This drew the attention of some RRS officers on patrol in the area and they arrested some of them”.
He added “They equally robbed some other victims amongst whom were a lady in the company of her boyfriend. They dispossessed them of their phones and stabbed her boyfriend who refused to let go of his mobile phone after parting with his wallet”.
In his confessional statement to the crime, one of the suspects said they specialise in robbing passers-by at night collecting their mobile phones, bags, jewellery and wallets.
An investigation by the police revealed that one of the suspects, Timileyin Oladipupo popularly known as ‘Timi Yahoo’, specialised in working on SIM cards of the stolen phones to determine which ones are internet banking enabled to facilitate the gang access to transferring money from victims’ accounts.
The suspect disclosed “I have worked on so many SIM cards given to me by Lekan and other groups in Agege Abbatior and what I do is to further increase our gain from the robbery by transferring victim’s money from their bank accounts after using some softwares to determine how much are inside their accounts and we also share the proceeds”.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police Mu’azu Zubairu who ordered the arrest of all the gang members, added that they be transferred to SARS for a thorough investigation.
He noted that the gang would be charged to court as soon as investigations are completed.
