Notorious Five-man Armed Robbery Gang Arrested By Police (Photo)

 

Operatives of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS), Abeokuta have smashed a five-man suspected armed robbery gang, terrorizing Ijebu-Ode and Epe, have been smashed by operatives of the Ogun State capital. 

 

The suspects, two of whom are siblings, have at one time or another been charged to court for armed robbery. It was also gathered that most of them, whose cases were yet to be disposed of by an Ijebu-Ode Magistrate’s Court have jumped bails

 

Most worrisome is that two notorious criminals currently in the Ijebu-Ode Prison, where the smashed five-man robbery gang members are still awaiting trials, Obabiyi a.k.a Oba ‘B’ and Ojubintin, call from the prison to give orders to the bandits on where next to operate in Ijebu-Ode

 

The use of phones and laptops in the prison, though not allowed, but according to the suspects, it was done through the active connivance of prison warders who, they said, sometimes resorted to general checkings, to mop up the gadgets at the disposal of inmates, but the exercise was not in totality.

 

Among the places the suspects confessed to have operated were Epe Road, Satina, Kajola, Emuren and Eruwon, all in Ijebu-Ode, aside Epe axis.

 

The five-member gang are Adeleke Ajayi, a.k.a Ajasco, 28, Segun Ajayi, 30, Gabriel Oriola, a.k.a Stone, 31, Adebayo Opeyemi, 33 and Wasiu Ogunlana, 28, who is the gang’s armourer.

 

Their arrests followed a tip-off on the syndicate’s robbery escapades, leading to Wasiu’s nabbing with three locally made guns, comprising two single barrels and a double barrel, all pistols.

 

Also found in his possession were 13 rounds of live ammunition, which he claimed belonged to the group and consequently named the four other suspects, whose arrests were through technical intelligence.

 

A spectacular incident narrated by Wasiu Ogunlana as the first operation that threw him into prison in 2014 was the death of one ‘Mama Sunkanmi’ in Ijebu-Ode.

 

According to him, during the woman’s wake-keep and lying-in-state, he went there as a guest of one of the deceased’s grandsons, simply identified as Mayor, and tactically removed the gold necklace worn on the deceased and replaced it with a substandard one.

 

He said the whole episode was a conspiracy between him and the said Mayor, adding that they sold the necklace to one Aboki in Ijebu-Ode for #90,000.

 

Wasiu stated that, the development so much piqued family members, who resorted to consulting a diety, to detect who changed the necklace.

 

However, sensing the repercussion, which would lead to mysterious death, Mayor was said to have owned up to the family, resulting to their arrests and arraignment in court.

 

“We were in the prison between 2014 and 2017. After serving my jail term, Oba ‘B’, from the prison connected me with Adeleke Ajayi, a.k.a Ajasco, leader of the gang, and we went for the Satina operation. It was the same Oba ‘B’ that, also from the prison, controlled one Ejima, a Beninoise, to give me the three pistols for our operations. At the end of each operations, we give Oba ‘B’s share, in monetary terms, to his wife, who takes it to him in the prison”, Wasiu revealed

 

Meanwhile, Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Iliyasu Ahmed, has ordered the FSARS to, on completion of investigation, charge the suspects to court.