Police arrest 10-members of a notorious syndicate that specialize in robbing bank customers in Lagos

No fewer that ten members of a notorious armed robbery gang, which specialises in robbing bank customers, have been arrested by operatives of Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team in Lagos State.  

The suspects identified as Musibau Ogunbiyi, Rilwan Olarinwajo, Wahab Wasiu, Akeem Hassan, Idowu Taofiq, Sadiq Alada, Razaq Isah, Tunji Kundus, Tijani Koyim and Ibrahim Olagoke were apprehended after robbing a businessman of N2m in his shop at the Abule-Egbe area of Lagos.    

According to reports, the businessman, whose name has been withheld, reported the incident to the Inspector General of Police, Adamu Mohammed, through a petition where he disclosed that his mobile phones and those of his staff members were collected during the robbery operation.  

IGP Mohammed immediately detailed operatives of the IRT to go after the culprits and ensure those responsible were arrested. During investigation, the IRT operatives were said to have discovered that those behind the robbery were members of a notorious gang operating on motorcycles and had been terrorising residents of Lagos, especially customers making withdrawals at banks.  

An IRT official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “During their operation, one of the gang members usually stays on a motorcycle and trails a bank customer with money before alerting his colleagues waiting nearby.

“They will thereafter rob and dispossess the unsuspecting victim of the money and other valuables. We discovered that the suspects have been in this business for a long time and have robbed several bank customers in various part of Lagos. Based on the IGP’s directives, we swooped on the suspects and arrested 10 of them from different parts of Lagos and Ogun states.” 

Confessing to the crime, Wasiu, whose job is to monitor customers coming out of banks with cash, said he was lured into robbery by a friend. The 28-year-old said,

“I am into aluminium production but went into armed robbery in 2017 after being introduced to it by a guy named Tunde. There was a day he invited me to follow him to do his business and asked me to go to a bank at Idimu and stand beside the ATM to monitor people withdrawing huge amount of money.  

“The plan was for me to call our bikeman who is Akeem Hassan once we identify a target so that we could start trailing the person. Tunde usually joins us later and we rob the person of his money.

Sometimes, when I am standing by the ATM, I also monitor customers coming out of the bank with nylon bags of money before trailing such persons until we rob them. So far, I have trailed over eight bank customers and built a house with the money I made from the robbery operations.”