Stories by Gbenga Adebayo
Ibadan
The Police in Oyo state have smashed an eight-man car snatching syndicate said to have been terrorising residents of the state and environs, just as three members of the gang were found to have escaped from Ekiti state Prisons in November, 2014.
Parading the suspects before journalists at the command headquarters in Ibadan, the Commissioner of Police (CP) in charge of the state, Mohammed Katsina, named the escaped convicts as: Boluwaji Olawumi, 42, Isaac John, 25, and Fagboyegun Wale.
He said the other suspects are: Seun Owoeye, 32, Ifeanyi Ogbuadu, 21, Olaiya Iwalewa, 38, Sulaiman Abass Omotitun, 4, and Haruna Usman, 18, adding that the gang meet its waterloo after snatching a Toyota Camry from one Mrs. Oluwafolakemi Fabodede in Akure, Ondo state before getting away to Oyo state to seek refuge.
CP Katsina further disclosed that four members of the gang which was reportedly behind the robbery of Zarech Pharmacy, Ogbomoso; Joba Pharmacy, Oyo and Mutlad petrol station along Oyo/Ibadan Road, among others were nabbed by operatives of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) while on surveillance patrol on March 20, 2015.
He said Police investigations led to the arrest of four additional members as well as the recovery of an AK 47 rifle snatched from a Policeman and other dangerous weapons.
Speaking to journalists one of the suspects and escaped prisoner, Boluwaji Olawumi, who confessed to the crime claimed he was a driver in Lagos state before he was introduced to robbery in 2014 by a friend simply identified as Ebenezer.
According to him, the said friend who was a native doctor and his gang specialised in hijacking trailers, adding that his initial arrest was during an operation along Akure-Igbara Oke Road, Ondo state, in May 2014, however, other members of the gang escaped.
He said he regrouped with his old gang members and other he met while in detention after the jail break, just as he further claimed that the gang AK 47 recovered from the gang was taken from a Policeman on guard duty during one of their operations.
Similarly, John Isaac, an indigene of Emevhor in Delta state who also confessed to the crime, said he was a bricklayer living in Otun Ekiti with a relation but ran to Ado Ekiti when the relation started maltreating him and started riding okada.
He said his criminal activities started with stealing four goats and progressed to snatching okada from riders by blowing ground pepper into the eyes.
Isaac said he had spent two years in prison before the prison break, insisting that he joined those who fled the prison because the inmates were afraid of becoming victims of extra judicial killings in the prison.