The suspect, Mojeed Ogooluwa, 34, aka Terminator, said he was an executive of Tricycle Operators Association, working at Ketu, Lagos State, before he was suspended.
Ogooluwa, a father of three, said the suspension came just as school children were preparing to go back to school. He added that within weeks, his financial situation worsened. His said: “I became an armed robber because I couldn’t pay my children’s school fees. I was an executive of Tricyce Operators Association in Ikosi Isheri Unit, Ketu. I held the post of financial secretary.
We are affiliated to the National Union of Road Transport Workers, (NURTW). My job was to monitor the movement of tricycles around Ketu. I was to ensure free flow of traffic. “I earned N5000 weekly. In January, I was suspended from work. When it was time for me to pay my children’s school fees, I couldn’t pay.
I became frustrated.” He explained that he was agonising about what to do next when he walked into an Indian hemp smoking joint one day, at Ketu, to smoke and met two men. They introduced themselves as Agu and Mutiu. They got chummy and soon he was spilling out his troubles.
Attempting to assist him, they told him about car snatching operations. They asked him if he knew how to drive, he replied in the affirmative. A deal was struck. Ogooluwa became a member of the gang. Ogooluwa added: “We exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet by nightfall.
When it was night, we met at Ketu Bus Stop. I was expecting only Agu and Mutiu, but they came with other guys. They came with Lekan Texas and Yahoo Foreign. They told me that the house where they wanted to snatch the car was not too far away. We decided to go on foot.” They hadn’t walked for long when Agu and Mutiu said they had reached their destination.
They pointed to the targeted building. He recalled: “Three of our gang members had guns. Time was around 1:am. We were able to gain entrance into the house by scaling the fence. Immediately we entered the compound, we smashed the door.
Two of our members, who were armed, went into the apartment. I waited outside. A few minutes later, they returned with the key of a Toyota Camry car. We all drove out with the car. But on our way, we intercepted a Toyota Corolla on CMD Road, Shangisha and snatched it from its owner.” They continued on their escape, now in the two cars.
They were soon speeding along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. The plan was to head to Ilorin and sell the cars to already waiting buyers. But patrolling policemen crashed their party. Ogooluwa recounted: “A police van appeared from nowhere and attacked us when we stopped to buy food. The policemen started shooting; we all scampered in different directions. A bullet hit Mutiu in the abdomen.
We abandoned him and the vehicles and ran away into the bush. The police followed us, but they stopped when they couldn’t apprehend us. I quit after that operation.” The victim of that fateful night’s robbery attack was 37-year-old Iyiola Shola, a civil servant.
The robbers stormed her home on March 8. According to her, the robbers were arrested and her car recovered because of the fasting and prayers she embarked on after the incident. The bandits stormed her Ketu home and dispossessed her of cash, jewellery, mobile phones, laptop and a Toyota Camry car.
After reporting the incident to the police, she embarked on prayers and fasting. She also carried out a series of night vigils. Two months after the incident, she got a call from her husband that the car had been found in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
He also told her that two of the robbers had been arrested by IRT policemen. Recalling the robbery, Shola said: “I was in my room, sleeping with my kids around 2: am, when five armed men burst into my room. They pointed a gun at me and demanded money.
“I didn’t know how they got into my compound, but I told them my money was inside my handbag, which was on the dining table. Two of them took me downstairs, while others ransacked my room. When we got to the siting room, I found my younger sister already lying faced-down. One of them picked my car keys and asked for the one to the main gate. I gave it to him.
They entered into my car and started shooting sporadically into the air as they zoomed off. They suddenly drove back. It was as if they left something behind. One of them jumped out of my car, picked up the item and left.” Some minutes after they left, a police patrol team showed up. They told Shola neighbours called them. She narrated her experience and gave them detailed description of her car.
The police immediately sent out radio messages. She said: “The next day, I went to Alapere Police Station, which was closer, to make a formal report of the robbery. But the policemen at that division didn’t assist me at all. Some even told me to forget the car; that the robbers must have taken it across border to Republic of Benin.
I felt helpless when they said this. I decided to pray. I told my husband not to tell people that my car was stolen, because I knew God would get it back for me. I fasted, prayed and held night vigils and God finally answered me.”
Revealing how the robbers were nabbed, a police source said: “The suspects were arrested when a team of IRT operatives, trailing a notorious gang of robbers that specialised in car snatching within Lagos and Ogun States stormed the gang’s hideout, in an Indian hemp joint close to Ketu Tipper Garage and arrested two members of the gang.
The members were identified as Mojeed Ogooluwa, aka Terminator and Toheed Waheed. “The suspects confessed to the robbery at Shola’s residence. When we asked where they kept her car, they told us that they were intercepted by policemen from Ogun State when they were on their way to Ilorin. They said they were going to Ilorin to sell the car.
The police killed one of their members and recovered the car. We followed on that information and found the car at Ogun State Police Command.”https://newtelegraphonline.com/kids-school-fees-forced-robbery-says-suspect/
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