LASTMA officials forced me into robbery

A member of a three man gang of robbers has revealed how the seizure of his commercial bus by officials of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA) compelled him to go into robbery.
The suspect, Echefulachi Alozie, was arrested along with Benson Onome and Koko John.
They were arrested by detectives from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command.
Detectives have described them as, “notorious armed robbery gang which specialises in breaking the windscreen of vehicles and robbing motorists in traffic jam within Lagos and its environs.”
The gang’s downfall started after police arrested Alozie at the Ijora Orile area of the metropolis.

The gang used to use stones, generators or motor plugs to hurl at vehicles’ windscreen, smashing them, after which they’ll attack the occupants. Their pet items of robbery were laptops and phones.
Alozie, 32, who has a six-months-old daughter said it was never his intention to take to robbery, but that LASTMA officials forced him into it, after they seized his bus, which was his only source of livelihood.
His words: “My wife doesn’t know that I’m an armed robber. I joined the robbery gang early this year. I stopped driving after my bus was seized by LASTMA. I joined the robbery gang because my wife was pregnant at the time my bus was seized. Things happened swiftly and I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t have money to feed or cater for her and our unborn baby.”
Alozie said he was introduced into robbery by one Mr. Pepper.
John, 22, a mechanic apprentice before he joined robbery, said Alozie convinced him to become a robber.
Revealing that he had participated in several robbery operations, John said regretfully: “We don’t make much from these operations. Most times when we steal laptops and phones we sell them at ridiculous prices. We sell Techno phones between N8000-N10000. We sell the HP laptop for N15000. I’ve sold over 20 laptops.”
It was also apparent that the gang was just about the three arrested members, for police are still hunting for Mr. Pepper, and One Amaechi.
 Onome, a bus conductor, said he was also initiated into robbery by Alozie. Police said Onome is the armourer of the gang.
“I was on my own when Alozie came to my house and gave me a gun to keep for him. He gave me the gun to keep because he knew it would be secured with me. The leader of the gang is Mfr. Pepper who came and gave me another gun to keep. Each time they are going for operations, they would come and meet me to collect the guns. The money I received from them is between N1500, to N3000. I’ve never participated in any of their operations. I got involved with the gang as a result of my greed. Sometimes I won’t get a driver to work with. So helping them keep their guns was helping me out financially.”
Distrust crept into the gang’s partnership after three of the guns disappeared. According to Onome who was in custody of the guns, he had hidden in a gutter, only to go there after members demanded for the gun, to go for an operation and discovered that all the guns were gone.
 “On a particular Sunday after they had a successful operation, they returned the guns to me and I took it to the safe place. I stopped keeping it in my room because a lot of people had access to the room. I hid the guns inside one of the gutters constructed by Julius Berger. The next time they came for the guns, I went to where I usually kept the guns and behold, they had all disappeared! Immediately I discovered that the guns had gone missing, I called Koko (John) because he was the person who handed the guns over to me. That was how they started threatening me because of the missing guns. I called Pepper also concerning the missing guns and he said the same thing.”
Determined to get to the root of the guns disappearance, the gang dragged Onome to the shrine of a native doctor.
Onome said: “They took me to a native doctor’s shrine in Ojo because of the missing guns. The native doctor made a sacrifice and asked the person who took us there to go and bury it after charging us N10, 000. Meanwhile, when the guns went missing, the police had arrested Alozie, so he wasn’t aware that the guns were missing. When the heat concerning the missing guns became too much, I had to collect N4000 from my mother to board a bus to Delta State.
“I was there when they called me to comeback that the whole issue has been resolved. After the guns went missing they stopped giving me guns to keep for them. They stopped calling me on phone too. When I came back from Delta State, John and Pepper came to my house. After eating, they both left and around midnight John, Alozie and policemen came to the house and arrested me.”