Molly Kilete
It was the end of the road for a gang of 17 suspected armed robbers that specialised in robbing innocent travellers of their valuables at gunpoint. The suspects operated mostly around Zuba, Giri junction, Dei-Dei, where interstate vehicles drop off passengers.
Apart from robbing their victims, they also beat them mercilessly, inflicting injuries on them with weapons like knives and guns.
They had met their Waterloo after complaints by drivers, passengers and other road users to the police on their notorious activities and found in possession with cutlasses, locally made guns, charms and other dangerous weapons at the time of their arrest.
The suspects who confessed they have been operating for over three years now, revealed that they chose those places commercial vehicles coming from outside of Abuja usually drop their passengers, hinging their reason on the fact that they found huge amounts of cash and sophisticated electronics on most of the passengers.
They also said that only very few came into Abuja without substantial amount of money. They usually operated between 2-10pm and even into the early hours of the day, attacking only passengers who stubbornly refused to part with their valuables.
The suspects told Daily Sun in police custody that they left their farming and other menial jobs to form the robbery gang. They said they have made so much money and acquired several types of cell phones, laptops, IPads, jewelleries, wristwatches and other valuables from their victims.
The gang leader, Jibrin, said: “I used to be a farmer, I farmed tomatoes, pepper and other vegetables. But I was not making enough so my friend Abdullahi, sold the idea of robbing passengers to me. I discovered that I made so much money more than what I used to make in my farm and had to abandon farming to join this one.
“Since I started, I have made good money. I bought a land and built my house. I also used the money I made to buy four motorcycles, bicycles and a Sharon car, which I gave somebody to drive for me.
“We used to start work sometimes from 2 O’clock in the afternoon. We worked till early morning because vehicles are always coming into Abuja. They drop them at Giri junction, Zuba junction and Dei-Del junction. So all we did was to pretend to be barrow boys or Okada riders.
“We helped the passengers to bring down their loads from the vehicles and asked them where they were going. When they told us we would behave as if we wanted to take them to get them vehicles to their destinations. We would then show them our guns on the way and they would just cooperate and gave everything to us.
“We made more money from female passengers. They did not like to drag with us. When we told them, ‘don’t shout’, they would not, unlike the men who would always put up a fight. We used to steal phones, laptops, iPad and other electronic gadgets from them and sold to buyers at Suleja and Kaduna.
“We sold iPones from N20,000, regardless of the brand. We sold laptops between N30,000 and N50,000, Ipad for N15,000 and N30,000, depending on how much the buyers had with him. We operated with knives, guns and other dangerous weapons. We only used them to threaten victims, but used them on those who proved to be stubborn.”