Lagos robberies: Three suspects in police net

The robbery suspects. Image: The Punch

Three armed robbery suspects who police claimed belong to the gang that terrorised Lagos on September 9 have been arrested. They are Uche Okeagbu, Emmanuel Ezeani and Chinonso Nwuangwu.

The suspects were arrested at their Ajangbadi hideout on September 23 following a tip-off.

Police said the suspects were members of a much larger group, which had about three weeks ago, carried out simultaneous robberies in Gbagada, Agege, Anthony, Ojodu, Itire, Ikeja and Ilasamaja areas of the state.

It was learnt that after 23-year-old Okeagbu was arrested, his confession  led to the recovery of a large cache of ammunition, one rocket propel grenade launcher, 225 AK 47 magazines fully-loaded, over 10,000 rounds of AK 47 live ammunition, two general purpose machine guns, 260 rounds of GPMG live ammunition, five dynamite with detonator and nine AK 47 rifles.

A self employed oil dealer before his foray into armed robbery, Okeagbu told PUNCH METRO that he was once based in Port Harcourt. He said he was introduced into the gang by a friend, and had since taken part in four operations in Ibadan ,and one each in Uyo Share, Kwara State and Lagos, where he got N100,000. All the operations happened this year.

A SARS team led by, Mr. Abba Kyari, found the gang’s armoury in two Volkswagen buses with registration numbers LSD 467 AR and AGL 506 XB, parked at Okeagbu’s residence at Ajangbadi.

Also, Nwuangwu said he took part in four robbery operations at Diamond Bank, Akure, in Ondo State, UBA, Osogbo in Osun State, GTB Okene, in Kogi State and Skyebank, Auchi, in Edo State.

The 23year-old said, “I was merely the driver of the vehicles. I just drove them to whereever they had an operation. I used to be an oil dealer in Port Harcourt before I joined the gang but I have stopped going with them for operations for a while now.”

The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Umar Manko, said the suspects were members of the gang that terrorised Lagos about three weeks ago.

He said the gang stormed Ilorin next, where they robbed a bank and attacked a police station.  He also said a Toyota Camry fitted with sensors and camera was recovered from the gang. The car, according to him enabled the robbers to monitor what was going on behind them.