Confessions of suspected armed robbers: ‘Greed, drug, stubbornness landed us in crime’

When a gang of armed robbers struck at Wisdom Estate at Akobo area of Ibadan, Oyo State, in the early hours of Saturday, June 3, and escaped after their operation, they thought they had had it so good. But few hours after their operation, operatives of the state police command arrested four of the members and recovered some of their loot.

The four suspects arrested included Liadi Afeez a.k.a. Ige (22), Semiu Fasasi  a.k.a Oluomo (21), Afeez Adeyemo a.k.a. Ijoba Oke (25) and Yakubu Kamorudeen (23).

Disclosing this during a press briefing last Friday, the state Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Odude, said that the gang, which had been responsible for armed robbery at Akobo and other parts of the state, not only dispossessed victims of their valuables, its members also inflicted varying degrees of injuries on them through machete cuts.

However, one of them, Liadi, was said to have been picked by the Idi Aro policemen and handed over to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). Upon Liadi’s confession during interrogation, three others were reportedly arrested by SARS operatives.

One of the victims, a woman who was inflicted with machete cuts, narrated her household’s experience to Saturday Tribune: “It was around 1:15a.m., when the robbers came to our house on June 3. By the time they got to our house, they were banging the door.

“Some of them were by the window, trying to remove the burglary. They surrounded the house, but when they couldn’t gain entrance into the house, they had to break the tiles by the entrance of door, and after they had succeeded with this, they used something to open the door.

“When my husband saw that the door lock had been removed, he told them that he would open the door for them which he did. As soon as they entered, they just went for my husband. They started attacking him with their machetes, despite the fact that he was begging them.

“Three of them were inside; one was with a gun, while two were outside. As they were attacking my husband, one just used the machete to cut his face. One of them even said they should kill him so as to teach him a lesson for refusing to open the door on time. As one of them raised the machete to cut him, I just used my hand to block the machete, and I sustained deep cut on my right hand.

“My husband ran through the kitchen door to escape from the house, and they faced me, telling me I had allowed him to escape. They asked me, my mother-in-law and the children to lie down, and they started removing whatever we had in the house.

“They asked for our mobile phones and our wedding rings but I told them I don’t use jewelry. They said if I didn’t cooperate, that they would cut the second hand. My right hand was bleeding at that time, and they even removed the wristwatch I had on with the blood.

“After they left us, they went to the next house. Inside our house, they fired a shot but my husband had escaped by that time, and when they got out again, they fired another shot, and we heard the sound.

“In the morning, we discovered that they raided about 16 houses in our neighbourhood.”

Saturday Tribune held an interview session with the suspects. Their confessions went thus:

Liadi Afeez, a.k.a Ige (muscular chest)

“I was at Labo junction, Ibadan, around 9:00p.m on Friday, June 2, when Semiu Fasasi a.k.a Olu Omo called me on phone and asked me to meet him and others at Gege market area. From there, we moved to Iwo Road, with Olu Omo, who carried the gun we took to the operation, leading us.  We went to an estate at Akobo area and hid in a block industry till 12:00 midnight when we moved out and started robbery operation.

“We would knock, and if the owner refused to open the door, we would remove the burglary proof. If the burglary was very strong, we would leave the house. Where we first operated, we didn’t injure the victims. We just collected their mobile phones. However, when we got to a house, we suspected the owner was a policeman, and he tried to apprehend one of us; that was how we attacked him.

“It was one of us, Baba Ahmed a.k.a Alaja, who is yet to be apprehended, who took us to the Estate to go and rob. I didn’t know the area until that time. During the operation, we collected mobile phones, wrist watches, cash, and other valuable items. It was Alaja who inflicted machete cuts on one of our victims, but when I also wanted to do the same, his wife used her hand to block the machete.  We were five who entered the house. We got N7,500 each from that operation. I also got two phones, a wrist-watch and a wedding ring. I was yet to sell any of the items before I was arrested.”

How we were arrested

“I was the first to be arrested. I was arrested at Labo by policemen from Idi-Aro police station a couple of hours after the robbery operation. I and others went for the operation on Friday night. We operated for like three hours. We stayed in the area till 4:00a.m before we left, because we wanted a time when people would have started moving. That was the third time I would be working with the gang.”

How I joined the gang

“I was an okada rider and didn’t know them before, but one day, I was coming from Ogunpa, and when I got to Oritamerin, I saw Alaja and Olu Omo, and they said they were going to Ojoo. I took them there and was given N500. That was when I collected their mobile phone numbers.

“As an okada rider, I had some customers’ mobile numbers in case they would need my services. On a particular night, I was called to take them to Iwo Road area; they never told me we were going to rob. They disembarked and I left. The following day, I was called again to come and meet them at home, and they gave me N2,000.

“The following week, they called me again that I should come and take them to Iwo Road. When we got to a bushy area, I told them I wanted to be going because it was around 12:00 midnight but they told me that instead of them giving me money, I should join them so that we would be going on operation together.

“I told them that I was not up to the task but Alaja, who is now at large, told me not to worry. I was given N15,000 at the first operation I went with them at Olodo area of Ibadan. The Akobo estate operation was the third operation I did with them.”

Semiu Fasasi, a.k.a Olu Omo

How I started robbery

“I met Alaja at the hemp joint where I used to smoke, and he used to give me money. As a result, we respected him. Then he took me and Liadi on a robbery operation on two occasions. It was last year I met him.

“Alaja is the owner of the gun we used for the operation, but I was the one he handed over to when he attacked our victim with machete. We fired just once during the operation. He wanted to shoot inside a victim’s house, but the gun didn’t work, so he went outside and tried, and it worked, so he put another cartridge, and we left the place.

“My mother did not know I used to rob, but she is aware I am a tough person, and she was always cautioning me. I got N15,000 at our first operation; N12,000 and two mobile phones the second time. I had gone on robbery operations just on four occasions. I learnt how to smoke Indian hemp by watching others who were doing it.”

How I was arrested

“I was arrested at home when I was sleeping. I rented a place, where I stay with my wife. I married her last year, but we are yet to have a child.”

Adeyemo Afeez a.k.a Ijoba Oke

“I was a bus driver, and as common among commercial drivers, we paste different names on our buses, so mine was Ijoba Oke. I got the vehicle on hire purchase, and it was at the garage I met someone by the name Gafari Alabi.

“I used to allow him drive the vehicle, but anytime he took the car to work for half a day, he would give me the money for a full day. I was happy with him, unknown to me that he was robbing with the vehicle. That was how he introduced me to it and we started working together.

“I was caught one day in 2015. Alaja, Gafari and I picked a lady and robbed her of her belongings. Shortly after, the car developed a fault and could not move after dropping her off. That was how policemen met us on the spot. During the time I was arrested, that Gafari had become seriously sick and eventually died before he could be arrested.

“I was in prison until I got bailed. On my coming out, the dealer who sold the car to me on hire purchase refused to release the N70,000 I deposited.

“With no job to do to take care of my wife and children, I called Alaja and told him things were difficult for me. That was how I joined him and others for robbery operations.

“My mother was the one who bailed me the first time. She always warned me to be careful of the friends I move with; she said I was always in her thought, and that she would help me as soon as she was okay herself. I didn’t listen to her. If I had, I wouldn’t find myself where I am currently. I couldn’t even call my father.

“He was always telling me that his generation never got involved in crime, and that they were hard-working. My father is even part of my problem. He has about five wives, and he was always denying us the things we need. In fact, when I was still schooling, I was a little brilliant, but my father never cared for his children.”

Yakubu Kamorudeen

“It was greed that brought me to where I am. I just lost my parents. My father died first before my mother. After a while, I went to a friend in Lagos who was a truck driver, but the vehicle developed fault and there was nothing else to do. I returned to Ibadan and got in contact with Olu Omo.

“I had slept in his house when I first returned from Lagos, and that was the first time I followed them for the operation. I didn’t enter the houses during the operation; I stayed outside; I didn’t even know we were going for a robbery operation. When we were going, somebody handed something in a bag to one of us, but I later discovered that it was a gun. I got N6,500 from the operation.”