Robbery suspects said their arrest due to breaking covenant with deity

The arrest of four suspected armed robbery suspects by the Lagos State Police Command, according to the suspects, was made possible because they broke the covenant they made with 'Ogun', (the Yoruba god of iron).

The hoodlums, Michael Shomuti, Bimbo Ibitoye, Idris Adebari and Saheed Abdulkareem, were unequivocal in blaming their arrest by operatives of the State Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), in the Ikorodu area of the state, was because they did not keep to their vows to 'Ogun' that they would put an end to their robbery spree after they must have made enough money to set up various businesses.

The four who said they all commercial bus drivers, said they took to robbery because the money they made as drivers could not take care of their needs and the decided to form a robbery gang in 2014.

And for eight months, the gang held sway, robbing with a vengeance and made as much as N1.6 million, which they shared equally amongst themselves at N400,000 each. But they forgot their oath with deity and continued their robbery operations until they were nabbed.

The gang often hired commercial buses for the sum of N10,000 each day they went for robbery and plied routes ranging from Ikorodu, Ketu, Ojota, Oshodi, Oworonsoki, Bariga and Victoria Island, where they robbed unsuspecting commuters.

The gang leader, Shomuti, 34, a father of one, narrated:

“We usually commence operations from 8 pm to midnight with two cutlasses as our weapons to threaten our victims.

We usually start from Ikorodu and pick the first victims at Berger Estate, dropped them at Iyana Oworo and from there to Oshodi.

Sometimes we picked five passengers at Oshodi and dropped them at Aswani on Oshodi-Apapa Expressway.

I started robbery last year, I cannot remember how many times we have robbed but we robbed three times a week.”

The operation that got the gang into trouble was when the picked two passengers, a man and a lady who were going to work on the Lagos Island. After robbing the man, they pushed him out of the moving vehicle while Kazeem raped the lady, after dispossessing her of her handbag containing an ATM card, a handset, a wristwatch and an undisclosed amount of money.

But suddenly, there were gunshots from nowhere and Kazeem was hit and died instantly while Shomuti was rushed to a nearby hospital at Gbagada.

It was the hospital management that reported a gunshot victim in their hospital to the police who swooped him and arrested him.

He was sued as a bait to arrest the other suspects.