Monday, October 7, 2019

‘We snatched cars after pouring pepper into drivers’ eyes’

Juliana Francis
Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command have smashed a gang that specialized in using pouring pepper into the eyes of cab drivers before snatching their vehicles.

At least five suspects have been arrested in connection with the gang. Operatives of RRS have also discovered that the gang was made up of thieves, cultists and cyber fraudsters, otherwise known as Yahooyahoo boys.
The suspects presently in police custody are Michael Sosa (27), Nelson Benson (24), Idowu Dauda (30), Owolabi Shobayo, aka Daju pa (29) and Biliaminu Abu, aka Gengen (43). They were all arrested in Ijoko and Otta, Ogun State, last week for hijacking and selling a Taxify Toyota Corolla Sports in Lekki, in February, 2019.
A police source said: “Two among the suspects carried out the hijacking, while three others participated in the selling of the car to a dealer in Republic of Benin for the sum of N250,000:00.”
The source further explained: “Michael Sosa, in company of Dosumu, now at large, had sometime in February, 2019 converged at Elegushi Beach, Lekki, where they both hatched the plan to hijack a Taxify car, move it to Ogun State and sell. Sosa, a ‘yahoo-boy,’ after waiting till 10:00 p.m., ordered a Taxify from Agungi Estate to Lagos Island. In the car with him were Dosumu and Idowu Samuel.”
While fielding questions from policemen, Sosa recounted how they once robbed a driver.
He said: “At Abraham Adesanya Estate, Lekki, I told the driver I wanted to ease myself. We alighted; while I pretended to be urinating, Dosumu poured dried pepper he was keeping, into bottle water. He had earlier bought the bottled water in traffic. He allowed the substance to dissolve well. We got back into the car. The Taxify driver was about to start the car when Dosumu poured the mixture on the driver’s head. The driver screamed and jumped out of the car. He started shouting for help. I got on his seat and drove the car away from the scene.
“I drove to the road leading to Alpha Beach, where we stopped for some hours, because we suspected we were being followed. At about 4:00 a.m. on Sunday, I proceeded to Agege via Agidingbi. I dropped Dosumu in Omole. I then went to pick Nelson Benson in Agege Stadium. Nelson was to direct us through routes that would prevent us from encountering police to Ijoko. At Ijoko, I took the car to Alfa Mouka’s house. He was my spiritualist. I told him the car was stolen. It was at this point we began to source for buyers.”
According to Sosa, he was introduced to Daju pa and Gengen. He described the two men as dreaded cultists and notorious criminals in their community.
He said: “I was new in the area and I didn’t know them quite well. I have been warned that they call the shot there. They took the car from me, but by this time, they were already scheming and getting difficult to understand. I told them I wanted to sell the car for N300, 000.
Daju Pa on his part, stated: “Eniba (Idowu Dauda) was the one who drove the car to my house in Ijoko. He told me that it belonged to his brother. I discovered that the car had no papers. This made it difficult to sell. We got a dealer who asked us to bring it to the Republic of Benin. Gengen and I took it across at about 11:00 p.m. after changing the number plate. We sold the Toyota Corolla Sport for N250,000. We would have sold it better than that but for the papers that were not available. I took N190,000 of the money. I gave N60, 000 to Gengen while I gave N40, 000 to Eniba to give Michael. Although I got to know that it was N30, 000 that got to him. Our link to Benin got N13,000. That was how we shared the money.”

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