Offa Bank Robbery: How The Robbers' Girlfriends With Stolen Phones Led To Arrests

 

 

Vanguard has reported that the 12 suspects who are currently being interrogated by Police operatives in Kwara State over the recent bank robbery in Offa, were arrested through the tracking of mobile phones the robbers collected from victims.

 

It was gathered that after the robbery operation, the suspects took away the handsets of the victims, which they later gave out to their girlfriends, while officials of the robbed banks were also said to have given the Police all handsets found within their premises after the robbery.

 

Report revealed that interrogation of the girlfriends with whom the phones were found, led to the arrest of the suspects in Ibadan, Lagos and Abeokuta. Further checks also revealed that the suspects had been in and out of jail several times and that they regrouped for that operation.

 

It was gathered further that the proprietor of the hotel where the bandits lodged a day before they struck, was said to have informed the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in the town over the alleged discoveries of some incriminating materials on the bandits while they were checking into his hotel.

 

The DPO and Divisional Crime Officer, DCO, immediately sent some officers to the hotel.

 

A source said instead of arresting the suspects, the police officers negotiated with the bandits, and “the bandits offered the officers N400,000.”

 

When the policemen returned to the station, they told the DPO and DCO that the bandits were Yahoo boys and not robbers as claimed by the hotel owner.

 

The source said: “It was not surprising that the robbers visited the police station the following day and killed about nine policemen in retaliation for collecting N400,000 from them.”