Two suspected armed robbers who are also members of Aiye and Eiye cults, were on Friday night arrested by the operatives of Rapid Response Squad after a failed attempt to rob two occupants of a vehicle in Iyana Ipaja area of Lagos State.
The suspects, Abbey Kolawole, (40), Ikenna Eze (30) and Femi (now at large) had accosted two occupants of a vehicle, who were having private discussions.
The occupants were reported to have locked and rolled up themselves in the car before the suspects got there.
According to Eze, Femi, the leader of gang, brandishing gun, ordered the occupants to alight from the car but they refused.
“He shot into the air, and threatened to shoot the occupants. He was attempting to fire the second shot when the locally made double barrel gun hooked”, he noted.
By this time, the residents of the area had emerged to check what was happening. The robbers fled in different directions and abandoned their gun.
While the leader of the gang escaped, both Kolawole and Eze were unlucky as residents who they were scaling their fences apprehended them and handed them over to the officers of Rapid Response Squad, who intercepted distress call of robbery in the area.
According to Eze, Femi invited the gang out to the house of a resident of Shagari Estate, Iyana – Ipaja with the intent of killing him.
He had stated in his statement to police that one of the occupants of the vehicle, had threatened to kill Femi.
Eze further stated that the man they attacked had earlier besieged Femi’s residence in Agege Abattoir in company of many cult members and threatened to kill him. But Femi in retaliation wanted to maim the man first.
He added that their “plan was to shoot the man in the leg but after firing the first
shot into the air, the gun hooked and before he could reload it, residence had converged and were moving towards us.
Femi was the one who knew the road, he escaped while we, strangers in that community were arrested”.
The two suspects confirmed they are members of Aiye and Eiye confraternities.
Recovered from the suspects were a locally made double barrel cut to size shot gun, three live cartridges and one expended cartridge.
Commenting on the development, the Commissioner of Police, CP Hakeem Odumosu thanked the members of Shagari Estate, Ipaja for cooperating with the police in the arrest of the robbers.
He urged communities in the state to partner with the police in crime fighting.
The suspects have been transferred to Gowon Estate Police Station, Ipaja.
