Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Nine persons arrested in connection with a bank robbery of July 29, 2020 at Okeho in Kajola Local Government Area of Oyo State were on Wednesday paraded by the Commissioner of Police in the state, Nwachukwu Enwonwu.
He also showcased exhibits recovered from the suspect, which include four AK-47 riffles, three assault riffles, 18 live and seven expended ammunition before journalists at the state police headquarters, Eleyele, Ibadan.
The robbers had stormed Okeho on Oke-Ogun axis of the state and attacked the bank as well as the Okeho Divisional Police Headquarters simultaneously in the evening of the fateful day. The local vigilante and hunters had barricaded all the roads to the bank when the robbery was ongoing and eventually apprehended four among them, whom the mob burnt alive.
According to the police boss in the state, investigation led to the arrest of four suspect that participated in the robbery. He gave their names as Mohammed Ibrahim, 25; Mohammed Illiasu, 33; Hammed Lukman,26; and Mohammed Jamiu Abdulmaleek, 30; adding that two other accessories – Azeez Yinusa, 42; and Sunmonu Adekunle,52; were also nabbed for allegedly assisting the armed robbery syndicate to get a rented accommodation, where they stayed for some days in the town before they carried out the dastardly criminal act.
Enwonwu stated that further investigation also led to the arrest of three additional accessory suspects – Okorie Friday,27; Nwali Sunday, and Akanni Olaniyi, 28; who were alleged to have looted huge amount of money and some other valuable items carted away from the bank after four members of the armed robbery syndicate had been lynched by angry mob.
The CP, who paid on-the-spot assessment visit to the crime scenes in the morning of July 30 also had one of the policemen in his entourage, Sergeant Ogunleye Zaccheaus, shot dead via a bullet that was fired from the midst of the mob, said he was accompanied to the crime scenes by tactical units of the command, including the Explosive Ordinance Department (EOD) to evacuate and detonate some unused explosives left behind by the armed robbers and to conduct a general on-the-spot assessment on the damage done to the Divisional Police Headquarters and First Bank at Okeho that was attacked by the armed bandit. One of the residents, identified as Ayo who moved too close to the EOD officials was said to have hit one of the unused explosives with his cutlass and the object exploded and injured him.
He recalled that the “armed robbers attacked and killed one Sergeant Moses Obahi, a mobile police officer attached to the bank before they proceeded to blow up the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and later went to the vault of the bank, where they carted away unspecified huge amounts of money running into millions of naira.
“While the armed robbery operation was ongoing at the bank, some of the armed robbers also stormed Divisional Police Headquarters, Okeho and attacked the policemen on duty in order to prevent them from foiling the criminal activity. The information was later received at the command’s headquarters and the Commissioner of Police thereafter mobilised SARS operatives and other police tactical squads led by the DC Operations to proceed to the scene.
“But before bthe arrival of the police operatives, members of the local vigilance group in the community blocked all the exit routes in the community to prevent the bandits from escaping and sequel to this, four members of the armed robbery gang were apprehended, while fleeing from the scene of crime. The four armed robbers were thereafter set ablaze by the angry mobs and subsequently burnt to death.”
One of the robbery suspects (name withheld by us) said: “I am an electrician. I was invited to Ibadan to come work. I never knew it was a robbery operation that I came for. It was when I got Ibadan I called the person that invited me that I was in Ibadan, and he said I should come to Okeho. I told him I did not know Okeho. Then, he said he would come and pick me up in Ibadan. He came to pick me and when we got to Okeho, he explained to me that it was a bank robbery that he had for me. I said I never did this thing before. I said I am an electrician and a graduate; I graduated from University of Abuja in 2010, how can you ask me to come and rob a bank?
“We were still in the car and he brought out a pistol and told me that I have to do it because he had released some secrets he would not be proud of. I said I did not ask for this secrecy and why are you doing this to me? He said there was nothing I could do than to participate. That was how I just got into it. I participated in the robbery. We did not make any money.”