Harvest of arrests
in Lagos
•Arms, ammunition, others raked in
By MATTHEW DIKE & CHIKEZIE ONYELUKAJAH
Thursday, May
8 , 2008
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•Some
of the recovered items
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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The Lagos State police command has recorded another bountiful
harvest of suspected criminals and recovery of large quantities
of arms and ammunition.
Ten of such suspects were arrested in the last one week, while
874 ammunition, 17 guns, including AK 47 rifles, Beretta,
revolver pistols and 27 AK 47 magazine were recovered.
While parading the suspects and displaying the arms and ammunition
at the Lagos State police command recently, the Deputy Commissioner
of Police (DC) in-charge of operations, Mr. Marvel Akpoyibo,
explained that the police under the command were working hard
to ensure that crime reduced drastically in the state.
Akpoyibo narrated how policemen attached to the Special Anti-robbery
Squad, (SARS) stormed one of the criminals hide-outs in the
state, based on the confessions of two suspects arrested earlier,
leading to the recovery of five locally made double barrel
pistols, one AK 47 rifle, one Bereta pistol and 186 live rounds
of live ammunition.
The police operatives were also said to have made use of information
given by a suspected armed robber to nab the duo of Nnema
Ugah and Destiny Reuben.
They also recovered four locally made pistols, one pistol
and 46 ammunition from them. Though, Ugah, who lives in Ajegunle,
confessed being an armed robber, he denied taking part in
a robbery operation the day he was arrested.
The suspect also denied any knowledge of the guns the police
said he and other members of the gang used to terrorize innocent
people. "Those guns are not my own. I don’t know
about them. They said they found them on this my friend. He
will explain better to you," he said.
Reuben, who claimed to be living in the Okokomaiko area of
Lagos, said though the guns were found on him, adding that
it was his friend that gave them to him to keep before he
travelled.
"My friend told me to help him to keep them. I don’t
know the content of the bag until police arrested me,"
Reuben said.
Akpoyibo told newsmen that three double barrel guns and 24
cartridges were also found on five suspects. He explained
that the suspects were allegedly arrested before they could
carry out their criminal acts. He said the police were still
investigating the matter.
Similarly, a suspected armed robber, Ifeanyi Godwin is finding
it difficult to convince the police that the guns concealed
in his Frajend motorcycle was given to him by a gang member
to keep.
While the police said Godwin had been robbing people under
the guise of being a commercial motorcyclist, the suspect
claimed he only kept guns for robbers.
"I only keep the guns. I don’t follow them to rob.
I’ve not robbed before. This is temptation. It’s
a disgrace to my family. They should forgive me," he
said.
Policemen from the command were also said to have engaged
armed robbers in a gun duel in the Iddo area recently, forcing
them to abandon their arms and ammunition and fled for safety
at Iddo area.
The robbers were said to be operating in one of the companies
in the area before policemen from Denton police station, Ebute
Metta, received a distress call about their activities stormed
the scene.
According to Akpoyibo, the bandits, in their bid to escape
in their Toyota Hiace mini-bus, engaged the policemen attached
to Rapid Response Squad in a gun battle. The fleeing suspects,
Akpoyibo said, abandoned their operational vehicle and fled
into a near-by bush.
The fleeing bandits were purported to have snatched another
bus and headed towards Oke-Afa bridge, Ejigbo, Lagos where
policemen had already laid ambush for them.
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