The Special Anti-Robbery Squad(SARS), Lagos State
Police Command, Ikeja, has arrested three members of the five man-gang which
stormed Senator Iyiola Omisore’s home, robbed and raped his house maid.
The robbers have been identified as
Chadians and confessed that they specialised in breaking into choice homes of
prominent men in the Lagos metropolis.
They were five men that went for the operation
at Omisore’s home and each took turn at raping the maid, said to be about
17-year-old.
The suspects presently SARS custody are; Mohammed
Musa, Ibrahim Mohammed and Jitto Saleh. One Mohammed Saleh is said to still be at
large. Two guns, five iron cutters, one chisel, one cutlass, assorted
charms, one iron bar and one dagger, said to be poisonous, were recovered from
them.
It will be recalled that the senator's
house was robbed on June, 18, 2014, at about 2am, at No. 11, Thompson
Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos.
A police source said: “Five of them raped
the house maid. It was through information that we went to Ikoyi. We found them
in a big building, occupied by Nigeriens and Chadians. It was not an
uncompleted building. The building does not seem to belong to anybody and they
had been living there for over 10 years. The first Chadian who brought others
to the building, had died.
“When we got there, we pretended to be seeking
for accommodation, one of them we figured we might policemen was the first to
escape, followed by others. We however got one who was carrying out ablution,
about to pray.
“When we got to the station, he told us that the
earlier we rush down to Mowe-Ibafo, which was their real residence the earlier
we can get other members of the gang. According to him, they only stay at the
big house at Ikoyi, just to rob residents of Ikoyi and Victoria Island, after
which they go back to Mowe.
“True to his words, when we got to the
Mowe-Ibafo, they had all deserted the place. We decided to lay ambush until the
following morning. At about 8am, they started coming back. The set to come in
were four. They were wearing military berets and one was even in military
trouser.
“As we moved in, one sighted us and took off.
Others rushed into their apartment and locked the door. We broke down the door.
When the house was searched, we found two locally made guns, a dagger which one
of them told us was poisonous, military vest and horse whip. They said that it
was one Saidu that used to give them information on where to rob.”
Recalling how they robbed Omisore’s home, they
confessed to have used iron cutters to cut the security wire.
According to them, they tied the two
security men attached to the house and posted a gang member, Mohammed
Musa, to watch over the tied guards. They also used iron cutters to cut the
window, entered the house and raped the housemaid who was the only person in
the main house.
They later moved on towards the Senator's room,
ransacked it and carted away valuables yet to be estimated.
Omisore’s laundryman, who was at the boys’
quarter, knew robbers had gained access into the house and alerted the Ikoyi
Police Station.
A police source said: “The police responded
promptly. While the robbers were escaping, the police shot one of them on the
leg and got him arrested. But others escaped.”
The arrested robber later took the
Officer-in-Charge of SARS, SP. Abba Kyarri and his men to Lekki, Epe Road,
where the other suspects were arrested. They now took police to another
hideout at Ibafon, where exchange of gun fire took place. One of the robbers
sustained wound and later died on the way to the hospital, while Jitto Saleh
was arrested.
Ibrahim Abdullah, 27, said: “I was working as a
security man in Anthony Village. After I travelled to my village to marry my
second wife, I returned and couldn’t get another job. I went to stay with
Mohammed Musa at Lekki. It was Mohammed who took us there when I told him I did
not have money and that I needed a job.
“We left from Obalende and hide in the
flowerbed till about 2pm. Mohammed Saleh, after cutting the wire entered, moved
around the building for some time and came to call us in.
“We tied the two security guards with
rope. We asked Mohammed to be watching them. We carried some clothes and shoes
because the man was not in the house. We collected one phone and watch.”
Mohammed Musa, 26, said that he was trying to
escape when police shot him on his leg.
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