We didn’t know we were going for robbery –Twins

The 27-year-old twins, Kehinde and Taiye Balogun, 27, arrested for the robbery at Reckitt-Benckiser Pharmaceutical, have denied being part of the robbery gang.
Taiye and Kehinde are not just twins; they are both welders and operate the same shop. The twins said they did not know that N10,000 given to each of them, for rendering their professional services, was for robbery operation.
According to detectives attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, Lagos State, the gang attacked the company 15 times and even raped a female resident in the Agbara area where the company was located.

Fielding questions from journalists, both men insisted that they did not know that when they followed the gang leader, Deji Akinwunmi, Okiefa Godspower and others to the warehouse at Agbara, that they were going for a robbery.
“We and Godspower live in the same area, but we don’t used to speak with him. One day, a friend, Yanki, came to call us. He said I should come to Agbara, that someone wanted to see me. As I was leaving, I called my brother, Taiye. We went together.
When we got there, we saw Akinwunmi and Godspower. Deji said he wanted to cut open a lock to a warehouse. He told us that he lost his key to the warehouse. We cut open the warehouse and they paid us N10,000 each. We saw buses there.
“When they asked us to assist them in loading the bags of chemical into the buses, we assisted them because they promised to pay us. We didn’t know they were on a robbery operation. We didn’t see any of them in uniform or carry gun.
It was that first and only time that we went with them to cut the locks,” Kehinde said. But after listening to them, the gang leader, Akinwunmi, said they were lying. He said: “They both knew we were going to rob and steal chemical from that company.”
A police source said: “Initially people in the area where the twin brothers reside, felt that it was a policeman living in that area who framed them for robbery. But when their father came to SARS, I explained the situation to him.
A member of the gang, Godspower told us that initially they didn’t want to tell Kehinde and Taiye the truth, but they eventually told them and they all took oath before embarking on the operation. They knew they were going for robbery and are liable.
“The chairman of the Welders’ Association came here to see them. He asked them why they didn’t follow the rules and regulations of the association if they were sure they didn’t know they were going for robbery.