I Took To Robbery To Pay My Children’s School Fees After Losing My Job

The Lagos State Police Command on Friday paraded a 34-year-old man, Mojeed Ogooluwa, who specialised in burglary and snatching of cars from motorists.

Ogooluwa was arrested and detained after he and his syndicate robbed a civil servant, Mrs. Iyiola Shola, of her car, money, jewellery, mobile phone and laptop on March 8.


However, police officers from the Ogun State Command, acting on a tip-off intercepted them on their way to Ilorin, where they wanted to sell the car.
The police reportedly killed one of the members of the gang and recovered the car.

Parading the suspect at the state police headquarters before newsmen, the state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, SP Dolapo Badmos, said two of the robbers had been arrested by the operatives of the Special Intelligence Response Team, SIRT, while investigations were on to arrest other members of the gang and bring them to book.

“They were arrested when a team of IRT operatives trailing a notorious gang of robbers that specialised in car snatching within Lagos and Ogun states, stormed the gang’s hideout in Ketu Tipper Garage,” the PPRO said.

While the police is still on the trail of the fleeing members of the gang, Ogooluwa, who claimed he was sacked from his job as the Financial Secretary of the Tricycle Operators Association in Ketu, Lagos, said he did not think of something else than to take to robbery.
The Oyo State indigene, who is married with two children, said hunger and frustration led him to joining a robbery gang who specialised in robbing people of their cars and other possessions.

Confessing to the crime, Ogooluwa said he went into robbery because he couldn’t pay his two children’s school fees after losing his job as an executive member of the Tricycle Operators Association in Ketu, Lagos and things became difficult for him.

He said he used to earn around N40,000 while on the job.

He told newsmen, “I was an executive member of the Tricycle Operators Association in the Ikosi Isheri Unit, Ketu, Lagos and I held the post of a financial secretary. We are affiliated to the National Union of Road Transport workers and my job was to monitor the movement of tricycles around Ketu and to make sure there was free flow of traffic.

“I used to earn N5,000 weekly and by the end of the month, I earned another N20,000. But in January, 2016, I was relieved of the job and when it was time for me to pay my children’s school fees, I could not pay again. I became frustrated.”

“I met one Agu and Mutiu at a smoking joint in the Ketu area of Lagos and they started talking about robbing cars from a house. I told them that I was a good driver and would work for them if they would accept me,” he said, adding, “We exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet by night.”

Ogooluwa added, “We met at Ketu Bus stop that night and I saw four boys — Agu, Lekan Tesax, Yahoo Foreign and Mutiu. They told me that the house where they wanted to snatch the car from was very close by and we went by foot. I didn’t know the name of the street; it was Agu and Mutiu who took us to the house.

“Three of us had guns, but I didn’t have any since I was new in the gang. Time was around 1am when we invaded the house through the fence and broke the door, two of us who had guns entered into the house while I waited outside. After a while, they came out, having collected the key of a Toyota Camry from the lady resident and we all drove out in it.

“On our way, we intercepted another car, a Toyota Corolla, on CMD Road, Shangisha area and we snatched it from its owner. From that point, wek proceeded onto the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and we were heading towards Ilorin, Kwara State to sell the vehicles to our buyers there.

“On our way, we stopped to buy something to eat when the police attacked us. They shot at us and we all ran into the bush, but the bullet hit Mutiu on his abdomen and we abandoned him. The police followed us. That was when I was arrested,” he said.

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By Unknown on Saturday, 2 July 2016