Everyday for the thief/robber; one day for the owner, says an adage. And so the day dawned for Adeniji Sunday, aged 25, and Amos Elijah (24) on February 2, when they were caught after unleashing terror on residents of Omiyale area in Ibadan, Oyo State.
The two suspects and one other identified as Sodiq a.k.a Omo Alhaja, had invaded the area on February 2, at about 1am, and attacked residents of about four houses, shot some, inflicted injuries on others and dispossessed them of their valuables
But nemesis was quick to catch up with n them as residents mobilised themselves and went after them, apprehending Elijah first, before laying hands on Sunday later where he hid, with the gun he had with him already dismantled.
Nigerian Tribune learnt that the joint patrol team of Oluyole Security Surveillance Team, put in place by Oluyole Local Government and headed by Olusegun Idowu, were joined by other vigilantes, Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) and youths to capture the robbers after they had inflicted deep machete cuts on an elderly man and shot others during the operation.
The irate mob then stripped the captured armed robbers naked and descended on them with cudgels and anything they could lay hands on, beating them almost to an unrecognizable state.
The mob were about to set them ablaze when police patrol team, led by the Divisional Police Officer from Ogbere Police Station, came to rescue and take them into custody.
Parading the suspects, the state Commissioner of Police, Ngozi Onadeko, confirmed in her press briefing that the three members of the armed robbery gang invaded Omiyale area of Ibadan with guns and cutlasses, shooting and maiming occupants of houses and carting away their belongings.
She said that it took the intervention by the patrol team attached to Ogbere to save the two suspects from being set ablaze by the irate crowd.
Recovered from them were a locally-made cut-to-size pistol, four handsets, a power bank, a wrist watch, three empty bags and a sum of N79,000.
Nigerian Tribune also learnt that the vigilante group headed by Idowu had arrested Sunday on June 10, 2021, after his gang operated at Fatusin area of the city.
The robbers were said to have broken into about eight houses, shooting and injuring a number of people. After his arrest at the time, Sunday was taken to Sanyo Police Station and was eventually arraigned in court.
Remanded in Abolongo Prison in Oyo Town while his case was adjourned, Sunday was among those who escaped during a jailbreak in October 2021, and was quick to be back into robbery.
In an interview, Sunday confessed thus: “We were arrested where my gang members and I went to rob. I was working as a trailer boy in Lagos. There was a guy called Sodiq. He told me to come and meet him in Ibadan. When I got to him, he said he had a robbery operation. He was the one who took us to where we went to rob.
“I had been arrested in the past by the police in Oyo Command for the same offence of armed robbery.
“I have been to prison before. I’m regretting that I did not change, but the cause is the bad friends I move with. Whenever I left my legitimate work, I would go home to my parents and stay with them. I don’t know how the gang leaders usually got my phone number. It was whenever I saw their calls that I would come to Ibadan for robbery operation. And I always fall into trouble. I believe my problem is spiritual.”
The second suspect, Elijah, also narrated his involvement thus: “I live at Omiyale area. I’m an Ibadan indigene and 24 years old. I work with those doing petroleum business.
“It is true that we went to rob but were apprehended by the community residents. We were three who went for the operation but the third person has escaped.
“We had invaded about three or four houses before we were caught. One of us inflicted machete cuts on an elderly man.”
On how the operation was planned, he said: “It was Sodiq who called Sunday from Lagos to come to Ibadan for robbery. My spirit didn’t want me to go for that operation. It was Sodiq who came with the gun for the operation. He had told us that he had a gun and we should not worry. As I saw the gun, I was captivated by it and followed them for the robbery. I didn’t know that I would be caught.
“We were descended on and stripped naked, with different cudgels being used on us. The mob had poured petrol on us to set us ablaze when the police rescued us. We would have been dead now.
“That’s my life story. God should just have mercy on me. It was covetousness and greed that pushed me into it. I was taken to my parents’ residence, bringing disgrace to them. I used to smoke hemp, but not much. Just help me beg the government to have mercy on me.”
The police commissioner said that a manhunt had been ongoing to apprehend the third suspect in order to bring him to Justice.