Police burst gang, recover two police snatched rifles

Juliana Francis
The Lagos State Commissioner, Prince Umar Manko said that two of the
AK47 rifles snatched by gang of robbers, after they killed two
policemen at the Iju area of the state, have been recovered.
According to him, the rifles were recovered after a gun battle with a
gang of robbers, who were the offshoot of the dreaded godogodo robbery
kingpin arrested this year.
Eight suspected members of the gang which killed the two policemen and
snatched their rifles had also been arrested. Among the eight members
is a woman.
The members have been named as: Ife Olubaba, 29,(Gang leader), Saheed
Wasiu,23, Segun Idowu, 20, Wasiu Rafiu, 23, Odelade Kabiru, 26, Waliu
Sonni, 29, Taiwo Obafunsho, 28(female) and Taiye Agege(killed).
Further recovered from the gang, aside from the two AK47 rifles
belonging to the slain policemen are: One automatic pump action gun,
four locally made pistols, two AK47 magazines, fully loaded, 135 live
cartridges and one Hyundai Tucson Jeep, marked MUS350B. The items were
said to have been recovered at the Egbeda area of Lagos.
Manko said: “On November, 3, 2013, in a follow up to the firing of
policemen attached to Iju Police Station in Lagos on October, 9, 2013,
by a gang of armed robbers, where two rifles were carted away by the
robbers, I specifically asked the Officer in charge of the Special
Anti-robbery Squad (SARS), SP. Abba Kyarri to take charge of the
investigation and recover the snatched rifles.
“Acting on the strength of this directive, which was closely
supervised by me, the manhunt paid off. Eight of the robbers, led by
Ife Olubaba, a boy to Godogodo, the kingpin of the south west armed
robbers were arrested at locations in Lagos and Ogun States.”
Manko continued: “During the exchange of gun fire between the armed
robbers and SARS operatives, Taiye Agege, second in command in the
gang, was fatally wounded. All the arrested armed robbers had
confessed to have taken part in the operation where policemen were
killed at Iju and many other robberies. Meanwhile, efforts to arrest
the remaining gang members have intensified.”
None of the eight arrested gang members vehemently denied knowing
Godogodo. This was even as Manko declared that the arrest of Olubaba
and death of Agege was like kissing goodbye to Godogodo’s robbery
dynasty.