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| IGP, Mohammed Adamu |
Mr Ibrahim Ismaila, (25), an
ex-convict, is one of the suspected criminals arrested for breaking into people’s
homes to rob in Lagos State.
Some years back, he was arrested for
stealing phone at Agege area of Lagos State. He was charged to court and
sentenced. After Ismaila left Kirikiri Prison, he returned to his vomit.
He would later become a member of a
deadly gang of robbers, specialising in storming communities at night to raid different
buildings.
Asked if prison didn’t change him
after his incarceration, Ismaila said: “Prison does not reform a criminal in
Nigeria. The truth is that in prison, the everyday discussion for relaxation is
on crime and how to become a stronger criminal. Everyone knows that the society
respects rich thieves. In prison, hard drugs are abused with reckless abandon.
It is better to send convicts to farms to work and feed the country, than to
send them to prison.”
He, however, added: “ I regret
joining House-to-House Robbery Gang. If I regain my freedom this time, I will
not rob again till I die.”
The downfall of Ismaila and his partners started
after the Inspector-General of Police
(IGP), Mohammed Adamu received series of petitions on the alleged activities of
the gang.
Adamu
directed his Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT), headed by a Deputy
Commissioner of Police (DCP), Mr Abba Kyari, to track down the gang.
The Lagos State
arm of the investigation was led by a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), Philip
Riennewa. Within weeks, the coordinated teams swooped on six members of the
gang.
The
suspects are Mobolaji Jayiola (24), Sodiq Lawal (25), Ajiwole Opeyemi (24), Akinwumi
Rilwan (25) and Ibrahim Ismaila, (25).
According
to police, the suspects had receivers scattered all over Lagos State. While
fielding questions from investigators, the suspects disclosed that they have
over 20 receivers. The police, however, successfully arrested one of the
receivers, Aransi Ajibola.
A police
source said: “ House-to-House Robbery is very dangerous. The suspects are
usually armed with pistols and axes. They can use the weapons on a victim if
the person is not careful.”
One of the gang’s victims, Mr.
Joseph Nwanegbo, who escaped being killed after being attacked with an axe, said
that the suspects surprised in his apartment at Mulero Street, Agege.
Nwanegbo, a South African returnee
businessman, said that the suspects stormed his home on April 27, 2018, at
about 2am.
Nwanegbo recounted: " I thank
God that I’m alive today. They inflicted deep cuts on my head with their axe. My
family rushed me to hospital and I survived. It was after I was discharged that
I removed the head bandage. The suspects attacked my head with an axe. They
were two. One came into the parlour and pointed a gun at me. I kicked him and
the gun fell down. We started wrestling; I managed to throw and held him down.
The second suspect came in with an axe and hit my head. This made me to leave
the one I was holding. They escaped. When one of my sons came out from the
inner room, he did not see the axe wound . It was when he asked me to go inside
and rest that he saw blood dripping down my face. He noticed the axe wound and I
was quickly rushed to hospital.”
Nwanegbo said that the suspects
successfully made away with his Passport, air ticket, company cheque books, laptop, two gold wristwatches and three
android and Nokia phones.
Ajibola (24), a National Diploma
Holder in Statistics and Mathematics, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta,
said that he started receiving stolen items because of financial difficulty.
The suspect explained that after his
graduation, he left school filled with great dreams and expectations.
His words: “After my graduation, I
was idle for many months and life was hard. My life changed after I met Gbenga,
a notorious receiver, who introduced me into stolen goods receivers’ network. I
specialised in receiving stolen motorcycles. There are other receivers, who
specialised in receiving stolen phones, jewelry, laptops, and vehicles, Plasma
TVs, among others. I have received about 17 stolen motorcycles before I was
arrested.”
Speaking on how the gang sells
stolen motorcycles, Ajibola said two face motorcycle goes for between N65,000
and N70,000, while one face motorcycle sells for between N30,000 and N40,000.
He added: "I believe that
without receivers, robbers would find it difficult to operate. They cannot be
robbers and receivers at the same time. I believe that some of the criminally
minded and greedy receivers may be involved in encouraging robbers to continue
to rob, so that they will continue to have a market. I regret taking part in
this dirty business; believe me, I have not made up to N250,000 since I started
this receiver-work. As I receive, so I give to those who buy from me.”
Another suspect, Rilwan, a divorcee,
said that he has a daughter. Rilwan, who introduced himself as a painter, lives
in Meiran area of the Lagos metropolis.
He said: “In order to find greener
pastures in the underworld, I relocated to Mushin area of Lagos in 2018 to
steal phones at bus stops. If I get to steal one or two phones per day, I was
okay. I used to make like N20,000 per day. If I don’t finish my money, I
will not go out to steal phones. However, I started House-to-House Robbery last
year. The gang was formed by Ire, Latin and I . We used one locally made pistol
and axe for operation. We don't kill our victims even at the height of
provocation.
“We only use gun to compel our
victims to cooperate. If we use axe during operation, it means we were only
trying to defend ourselves. In our last
operation, we collected over 50 phones and 10 laptops. There were times we
collected over 100 phones. We used a Ghana-Must- Go bag to carry them. The
challenge with our operation is that receivers used to cheat us by stealing the
phones, laptops and even hide some of our money. We have standby buyers
(receivers). I graduated into armed robbery after I met Latin, Segun and Ire in
Mushin. They were the ones who asked me to join the gang. There was a time I
had my own gang. I used to hire our operational guns for N5,000 each from Gani,
who we met at ghetto in Mushin, Lagos. We operated at night because it’s most
convenient. I’ve robbed more than 12 times before I was arrested by IRT
operatives.”
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