The Police in Ogun State Police said they have arrested four “notorious armed robbery suspects, who specialize in snatching motorcycles at gunpoint.”
The suspects were identified by the police as 20-year-old Muhammad Adamu, 22-year-old Okacha Alidu, 28-year-old Yusuf Mohammed and 20-year-old Muniru Sunmaila.
Police spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the suspects were nabbed following a distress call received at the Ajuwon police division at about 3 AM on October 24.
Oyeyemi said the police were informed that the suspects had attacked one Sunday Doile at Onibudo area of Akute and snatched his Bajaj motorcycle at gunpoint.
Upon the distress call, the DPO of Ajuwon division, SP Andrew Akinseye, was said to have mobilized his patrol team to the scene.
Sighting the policemen, Oyeyemi said the hoodlums numbering six, fled in different directions, “while one of them escaped with the snatched motorcycle.”
Four of the gang members were apprehended following a chase by the police.
”On interrogation, they confessed to being the syndicate responsible for various cases of motorcycle snatching in Ajuwon and its environs. They confessed that their mode of operation is to use a motorcycle belonging to one of them to cross the one they want to snatch, and they will show their gun to the victim and order him to surrender his motorcycle,” the Police Public Relations Officer explained.
“According to them, any of their victims who struggles with them will be hit on the head with an iron rod, and the motorcycle will be taken away while the owner is unconscious.
“They claimed to have killed one of their victims in the process,” the Police Public Relations Officer explained.
He added that two locally-made pistols, one iron rod, one cutlass, one live cartridge, three expended cartridges and assorted criminal charms were recovered from the suspects.
Meanwhile, the State Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, has ordered the transfer of the suspects to State CIID while directing that the escaped members of the gang be hunted down.