Victim recognises robber on the street

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A female victim of robbery at Bariga area of the Lagos metropolis was shocked to see one of the robbers on the street, days after she was attacked.  The lady summoned courage, grabbed the suspect and raised the alarm. 

The suspect, Akeem Mustapha, 20, said he never believed in his wildest imagination that he would run into a victim on his street. He said he belonged to a four man gang of robbers.
 Mustapha named his partners as Sulaiman, Ibrahim and Segun.
He said Sulaiman was the gang leader before his demise.
 The police have congratulated the lady for her courage. The police said Mustapha was one of the robbery suspects on the wanted list. Mustapha said that after they robbed the lady, his gang leader was shot and killed by the police. 
The police recovered a gun on the body of the leader.
Mustapha identified the gun as the one they used for the robbery operation. The suspect, a child of a broken home, said that since his parents went their different ways, his 68-year-old grandmother had been taking care of him.
 Mustapha said he was staying with his grandmother at Bariga and it was the same area that his gang used to carry out their robbery operations.
Mustapha said he was expelled for fighting while he was in SS3 at Ajayi Crowther Memorial Secondary School at Bariga. Since then, he had tried his hands in barbing and learning window designing before the lure of robbery came calling. 
He said: “The police arrested me because we went to rob. We used to rob people of phones and necklaces at Odunsi area in Bariga.
We use machetes and guns as our weapons. I was arrested because of the last operation we went at Bamiji Lawal Street in January 2014. 
“The lady we robbed saw me on our street and recognised me. We robbed her of her necklace and N50,000. We robbed her in front of her home, where she used to sell phones and recharged cards.
The operation was at night. She cooperated. We sold the necklace. Sulaiman said he sold it for N30,000. My share was N20,000.” Mustapha, who said the gang used to operate around the Bariga area, said they had robbed more than six times in Bariga. The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Kenneth Nwosu, confirmed the arrest.
Nwosu explained that in June 2014, Ibrahim, Sulaiman, Segun and Mustapha conspired together, armed themselves with a locallymade pistol, some cutlasses and started to rob people in Bariga area of their property. 
He said: “The gang leader, Sulaiman, was shot dead by policemen from Bariga Police Station, while the remaining gang members took to their heels.
“Further investigation revealed that Mustapha had been on the wanted list of police since the robbery which took place on December 13, 2014. “The lady who was robbed sighted Mustapha and identified him. She subsequently raised the alarm, which attracted policemen.
The suspect has confessed to the robbery. He identified the gun recovered from the dead robber as their operational gun.” But Mustapha said it was Sulaiman who lured him into robbery. He said: “Sulaiman met me one day as I was returning from work.
He and some boys were smoking Indian hemp; they called me to join them. The next day, he called and told me he would teach me how to make money; since then, I started going to operations with them.”