Armed robbers nabbed while arguing over loot

Policemen attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), of the Agbado Police Division of the Ogun State Police Command have arrested three members of a notorious armed robbery gang said to be terrorising the Agbado area and other nearby communities in the state, while they were arguing over the sharing formula of the loot they had dispossessed their victims of, the Punch reports.

The three suspects are Tope Oyeleye, aka Elede, Abiola Yekini, as well as Yusuf Olohuntoba, also known as Ete, while others including the alleged leader of the gang identified as J.J, Absorber, Sule and Ramoni, managed to escape.

It was gathered that the hoodlums had carried out a house-to-house raid in the Owonikoko and Ayinla areas around 2am on Monday, November 30, where they carted away money, phones, laptops and other household items.

After the operation, they were said to have converged at a street in Ayinla to share the loot but they could not agree on the sharing formula, leading to an argument which alerted a resident and he put a distress call to the police.

The DPO of the Agbado Division was said to have mobilised his men who dashed to the area and arrested the three suspects while the rest escaped.

Items recovered from them include 16 phones, one DVD player, two cut-to-size guns with a live cartridge, two spanners, a burglar proof cutter, among others.

Elede, 21, who said he is an indigene of Ekiti State, confessed to the crime, adding that he had been into robbery for three years. He told the police that he joined the group after six members of his former seven-man gang were killed by a police team, who went after them for killing a banker and robbing him of N7 million sometime this year.

“I was initially selling cannabis, but I joined a robbery gang three years ago when I was not making enough money from the drug. We were seven in number bearing Oyenusi; I am Oyenusi 07.

We robbed a banker of N7 million early this year around RAFCO, Agbado. We killed him because he confronted us. I got N650,000 in that operation. The six others have been killed.

We were six in the Monday night operation. I was given four phones and a sum of N2,000 as my share. There was an argument between Ramon, Sule, J.J, Absorber and I over the sharing formula. We were on it when the policemen came. Ete was not involved but he is my friend.”

Yekini, a 28-year-old indigene of Ibadan, Oyo State, said he took to robbery to raise money to pay the rent for the shop where he worked as a barber.

“I was introduced to the gang by a friend called Anu when I told him I needed N24,000 to pay my shop rent. I tried in vain to borrow the money from my neighbours.

This is my first operation and my role was to stay outside to watch for other members robbing residents. I collected the four phones and N500 they gave me without arguing with them. I really regret what I did.”

Ete, a cobbler, said he was not culpable of the offence, adding that he was just a friend of Elede. However, the police said his fate would be determined after the investigation.