'I bought gun from an undergraduate ’

The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, Lagos State, has arrested a man, believed to be a gunrunner who used to hire guns out to armed robbers for operation.

The suspect, Ismaila Adebayo, had vehemently denied being a gun runner, but nobody is paying attention to him.

The first time Adebayo went to prison in 2012, it was because a suspected robber fingered him as the person who gave him the gun that was recovered from him.

Presently, Adebayo is in the custody of SARS, because another robbery suspect also squealed that one of the guns recovered from his gang, was given us to them on hire by Adebayo.

Adebayo denied both allegation, insisting that the first gun was taken from his land by the robber, while the second gun to given out to the gang on hire because they told him they were going to fight another gang over land issue. He said he did not know the men were going to use the gun for robbery.

While admitting that he bought the first gun from LASU undergraduate, who belonged to the Eiye confraternity, he however could not give a tangible explanation on how he came to be in possession of the second gun.

Police however believe that Adebayo had other guns hidden somewhere, which he had refused to reveal to them.

Narrating his first journey to prison, Adebayo said: “I sold the land to Lukmon. The land belonged to my father. It was my father who said I should assist him in selling his lands in Abeokuta.

“After I sold the land to the Lukmon, he started building. There was a gun I kept at the site. I bought that gun from a LASU undergraduate. The student was a cultist and belonged to Eiye confraternity. I bought the gun from him for N10, 000. The name of the undergraduate was Wale.

I kept the gun in the land I sold to Lukmon. He discovered it and started using it for robbery.

“I didn’t even know he was into robbery. I later heard that he was returning from a robbery operation when policemen in Lagos, on ‘Stop and Search,’ flagged him down. They found the gun and arrested him.  During interrogation, he told the police that the gun belonged to me. They came and arrested me.

“I’m not into robbery. We were charged to court and remanded in prison. The gun was not for robbery. I used it for fight over land matters. I left prison just last year.

“In this present operation, I got gun for the gang. I won’t do it again. I spent a year in prison. I had not been up to seven months that I left prison. But what the gang told me was that they wanted the gun to fight another gang over land matter. I didn’t know they were robbers!”