A 24-year-old robbery
suspect, Norudeen Akorede, has blamed his step-mom for his robbery activities.
Akorede, who is among
six suspects arrested for raiding buildings in Aboru area of Iyano-Ipaja, Lagos
State, where victims’ heads were hit with machetes and fingers chopped off,
claimed that he turned bad following his parents’ divorce and both remarrying.
According to him, his
father’s new wife inflicted him with a demon, which made him to take to
robbery. Akorede, a father of two, was arrested alongside Kunle Akerele alias
Kunle Poly (29), Ayuba Aransi (20), Adewale Toyin (42), Tunde Yusuf (33) and
Oluwatosin Adeyemi.
He said: “My father’s
new wife started tormenting me. She made my younger brother to go insane and also
poisoned my father. And then she turned me into an armed robber. Aside from fixing
aluminum doors and windows, I’m also a boxer and tennis player. A lot of people
knew I was skillful and my father’s wife wasn’t happy about it, thus she turned
my life into a mess. I want to advice people who are into armed robbery to stop.
I know that my predicament started after my father married two wives. If he had
not, my life wouldn’t have been like this.”
Residents of Aboru community
will always remember the day Akorede and his gang members stormed their
community. It was in January 2019. The gang members were armed to the teeth.
They unleashed terror, dispossessing residents of phones, laptops and cash.
They also inflicted life threatening injuries on residents.
The gang visited six
buildings and while leaving, promised to return for another operation. The
robbery operation was later investigated by operatives of the Inspector-General
of Police Special (IGP) Special Intelligence Response Team, (IRT), led by a
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Abba Kyari. The IGP, Mohammed Adamu, instructed operatives
of the IRT to probe the attack.
The operatives first
went to the community to interview the victims. Working on the information
gathered, the operatives arrested six members of the gang and recovered two
locally made guns, 60 mobile phones and over 30 laptops.
Akorede said that he met
his gang members at an Indian hemp smoking joint and was talked into joining.
His words: “I used to
fix aluminum doors and windows before I joined robbery. I reside at Alakoko
area of the metropolis with my mom. My troubles started after my parents
separated. My mother and father remarried. I was in secondary school when my
parents separated. My mother took me along when she left my father’s house. My
younger brother went with my father. After my secondary school I went to
learn how to fix aluminum doors and windows. I started smoking in 2017, but
before I started smoking, I use to attend church with my mom. I was warned by
the prophet in the church never to smoke cigarette or Indian hemp. He said that
enemies were planning to ruin my life with it. He added that anything I wanted
in life, God would give it to me, if only I would adhere to the instructions.”
He explained that two
years ago the story of his life changed, after he went to Egbatedo area in
Alakoko to look for a lady. He disclosed that in the area, people used to smoke
Indian hemp and other hard drugs. It was there he met Kunle Poly.
He claimed that it was
Kunle Poly, who taught him how to smoke and later introduced him into robbery.
He stopped attending church and going to his work place. He started spending
most of his days at the smoking joint.
He said: “Gradually, the
spirit of God left me. I started following Kunle. We later met two other guys, Rafiu
and Olamide. They talked me into joining them. I went on four operations with
them. It was in the last operation that we injured people. Our gang
members, Ay, Bode, Tunde and Peter were
armed with machetes on that fateful day. They were also the ones that injured
people. We robbed four buildings. I was given only N20,000 in that
operation. I wasn’t even aware that Kunle-Poly stole a gold necklace in that operation or that one of the victims was
robbed of N400,000.
“My gang members were
just using me as instrument of evil. They will go inside houses and asked me to
stay outside to watch out for police. They will rob victims of huge sums of
money and give me peanuts. They said I should buy my own gun if I wanted
to be getting bigger shares.”
Kunle-Poly explained
that he went into crime because he had no job. He bought his first gun for
N20,000. He explained that due to lack of job, he spent most of his days at an Indian
hemp smoking joint in his community. While Akorede claimed that Kunle-Poly
introduced him into robbery, the latter insisted that it was Akorede that
linked him to robbers.
Kunle-Poly said: “One
day, I approached Tunde Yusuf, who lives in my area. I gave him N20,000
to buy me a gun. He did. There was this other gang member known as Tunde,
who had a gun. But he has been arrested. When he joined our gang, he came with
his gun. Our first operation was at Aboru. It was Ayuba, a friend of
Peter that called me; he said that he has found a community we could rob. This
was in November 2018. I led six of our members to the community. We had
two guns and robbed four bungalows. I had one of the guns with me, while
Tunde had his. Peter, Ay and Bode had cutlasses.”
The suspect further
stated: “When we approached the first building, Peter removed the Aluminum
windows and entered into one of the rooms. He threatened everyone in the room,
and from there, he opened the passage door for us. We entered and robbed all
the occupants of phones, cash and laptops. I can’t tell you the number of
phones we robbed in that building. We moved out of there to some other streets,
where we robbed three additional buildings. At the end, I got two phones,
one laptop and N15,000 as my share. I became angry. I told them that I wouldn’t
go with them for any other robbery. What I got was too small. I told them
to call me only when they had lucrative operations. Before I was arrested, I
joined another gang led by one Emir; we robbed a building in Agbado area. We
collected three laptops and five phones. I was arrested the following day.”
Asked how he was
arrested, he replied: “It was the receiver that brought police to my house. It
was after I was arrested I learned that Akorede and Peter led another group to
rob people in Aboru, where they injured many people.”
Yusuf, also a father of
two, said that he was working as a barman at the Ikeja Country Club before he
was sacked. After losing his job, he started staying at home and later came in
contact with Kunle-Poly and Akorede. The duo told him to get a gun for them. He
bought two guns from a member of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) for N20,000.
He disclosed that after
every successful operation, the gang would give him some money. He confessed to
being the person that used to assist the gang in selling phones and laptops
robbed from victims.
One of the suspects, Aransi,
a resident of Aboru, said that he is a cobbler. He joined robbery in January
2019. He said that his friend, Rasheed initiated him.
Aransi added: “I was the
person that led the gang to rob six houses in Aboru. It was Peter that chopped off the
fingers of one of the victims. I was given N20,000 on the first operation.
I got N15,000 in the second operation.”
The receiver of the
stolen items, Toyin, said that he is a laptop and phone repairer at Ikeja
Computer Village. He said that he started selling phones in March last year.
He said: “I didn’t know
that the phones were stolen. I usually buy each for N20,000 and N15000. I sell
for N44000 and N23000. I used to buy laptops from them at the rate of N25,000
and N30,000. I resell for between N50,000 to N60, 000, especially laptops. I
have received a total of 60 phones from them. I didn’t know that the phones
were stolen at the beginning.”
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