A 24-year-old member of a suspected gang of traffic robbers terrorizing Festac, Mile 2, Ojo, Alaba, and Iba areas of Lagos State, has been arrested.
The suspect, Sunday Akpa, was arrested in Iba area of the state by eagle-eyed Anti-crime patrol team of the Iba Police Division.
Sunrise News gathered that the suspect was nabbed at about 5:30pm on Friday, from whom two locally-made pistols and five live cartridges were recovered.
Akpa was on board a commercial bus, apparently to join other members of the gang for an operation, when the bubble burst, the police revealed.
Luck ran out on him when, coincidentally, the policemen on a routine patrol of the axis flagged down the bus conveying the suspect for a check, only for him to hop down and took to his heels, a scenario that raised the officers’ suspicion of him as having a criminal inclination.
The operatives, it was gathered, resorted to chasing and caught up with him during which, a search on the bag he was carrying revealed the arms and ammunition neatly concealed.
Speaking on the arrest, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), CSP Adekunle Ajisebutu, in a press release, attributed the arrest to “the ongoing efforts of the command to rid the state of criminal elements, through constant proactive and visibility policing”.
“The suspect belongs to a notorious dare-devil armed robbery gang, suspected to be responsible for the spate of traffic robbery and sundry criminal activities in Festac, Mile 2, Ojo, Alaba, and Iba areas of the state”, Ajisebutu stated, adding that the state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, had directed that the suspect be transferred to the Command’s Special Squad for indept investigation with a view to arresting other members of the gang.
“While commending the policemen for their commitment to duty, the Commissioner of Police vows to maintain the onslaught on all criminals and other hoodlums still planning to ply their evil trade in the state”, the command spokesman said.