Ex-footballer, 7 others arrested for robbery

An acclaimed ex-footballer with the defunct Niger Tornadoes Football Club of Minna was among the eight-man robbery gang paraded at the Lagos State police command Headquarters, Ikeja, yesterday by the Commissioner, Kayode Aderanti.

The former footballer, Mohammed, (other name withheld), who confessed to the  crime, gave an account of how his gang snatched a Honda CRV Sports Utility vehicle (SUV) 2013 model belonging to Lagos-based Channels Television.

Though, he said he was only a receiver of  stolen vehicles, but he admitted that   he was always on ground each time the gang went on any operation.

Mohammed said his  gang had been snatching vehicles at gun-point for over five years.

“I was a cow dealer in Lagos. I was selling  cows at Agege abattoir, but sometime in 2005, I incurred a debt of about N2.6 million. I ran away from Lagos when I could not pay up my debt and my creditor was looking for me.

“When I left Lagos, I went to Abuja, where I stayed briefly. I left Abuja for Minna, Niger State and in 2011, I joined the defunct Niger Tornadoes Football Club. I was paid  N150,000 monthly. Our coach then was Landa Bosu. A year later, I quit football when I sustained injury on my leg and  went back to Abuja where I started a football viewing centre . It was a young man who sold soft drinks beside my viewing centre that first introduced me into the business of receiving stolen vehicles.

“I was arrested in 2012 for receiving a stolen car and I left Abuja for Kano, my home town after I was released by the police. It was while I was in Kano that I ran into one Tony, who was also a receiver of stolen cars.  He introduced me to Ejike, the leader of our car snatching syndicate. I bought about seven cars from Ejike. The police arrested one of my boys when he came to collect the Honda CRV. I didn’t know that the car belongs to Channels Television.  It was my boy who was arrested that brought the policemen to my place in Kano.

“After my arrest, I was  brought to Lagos where I assisted the police in the arrest of  other members of our gang.”

Parading the suspects, CP Aderanti said the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS)  arrested seven members of a notorious gang from their hide-out in  Ikorodu.

He identified the suspects  as Bali, 40, Emeka, 32, Ejike, 37, Mohammed, 33, Ali,28, Johana 31, and Augustin, 30 (other names withheld).

Two locally-made double barrel guns, four live cartridges, one Honda CRV marked Lagos LSD 322 CK, a Peugeot car, AU 380 KWL, one Toyota Camry. GRZ 42 AA and a Honda Accord salon car, KSF 95 DB were recovered from the criminals hide-out”

He said the suspects would soon be charged to the court.

CP Aderanti noted that bursting the gang followed a case of conspiracy and armed robbery lodged by a worker of Channels Television.  He said upon receipt of the information, he immediately directed SARS boss, Abba Kyari to investigate it.

“Kyari staged a massive manhunt for the criminals. Eventually, three members of the gang, namely Bali, Emeka and Ejike were arrested by two SARS decoy teams led by Kyari at Ojodu and Ikorodu areas of Lagos. Aside the vehicles, two locally-made double barrel guns and four cartridges used for their operations were recovered,” he said.

By CHRISTOPHER OJI, sunnewsonline.com