I joined car snatching gang after my bike was seized by Task force —Suspect

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Twenty-five-year-old Lawal Abubakar, one of the four suspects recently arrested by Osun State Police Command, has stated his reason for joining an armed car snatching gang, saying it was as a result of the seizure of his motorcycle by the Lagos State Task force.

Lawal, with three others, were apprehended after snatching an unregistered black Mercedes Benz car along Ibadan-Ife expressway which they boarded at a motor park in Lagos State, pretending to be passengers.

The three other suspects were identified as Nafiu Umar (35), Sule Mohammed, popularly called Abdullahi (20), and Ibrahim Yusuf (24).

Exhibits recovered from them were a cut-to-size pistol, a live cartridge and a knife.

The police spokeswoman in the police command, SP Yemisi Opalola, who disclosed the arrest, said that at about 6:30am on June 15, a man who said he was a driver reported at Gbongan Division that he picked four passengers from a park in Ogun State, on a journey to Abuja with an unregistered black Mercedes Benz car.

Nigerian Tribune learnt that the suspects had ganged up and went to Berger area, with the plan to snatch a vehicle, which made them to board the unregistered Mercedes Benz car.

The car, reportedly owned by an Abuja resident, had just been shipped to Nigeria which brought up the need for someone to drive it down to the Federal Capital Territory.

On getting to the OPIC Park at Kara, the suspects told the private vehicle driver that they were going to Abuja. After charging them N10,000 each as transport fare, they left the park at about 1am.

Unknown to him however, the gang had a locally-made pistol hidden in a bag. At about 4am, on getting to a speed breaker at Ikire axis, one of the car snatchers brought out a gun and ordered the driver to park the car. The driver was said to have argued with them, making the one sitting at the front to forcefully remove the ignition key. This forced the the car to veer off the road before coming to a stop.

They got out with the driver and started beating him after one of them held his neck. He was also stabbed in his right index finger. The one with the gun also fired two shots into the air, which made the driver to run away.

A credible police source said that the four armed robbers took the car and sped off. “In the process, they had a tyre burst. They changed it with the spare and got to Gbongan after 6am. The car had gear fault and was not moving fast, so this made them to go into Gbongan township to get a mechanic. After their efforts were futile, they went through the town to link the expressway through the road where Gbongan police station is situated.

“Unknown to them also, the driver had manoeuvred his way through the bush and got to the police station to report the case.

A policeman carried the complainant on a bike to visit the scene of the incident. As they were moving out of the station, they sighted the suspects driving the Benz past them. The policeman stopped them and they complied since they didn’t know he was aware of the operation they carried out. But as soon as they saw the driver of the snatched vehicle, they pressed hard on the accelerator and zoomed off to link the expressway. The policeman pursued them, making them to dive into the bush after abandoning the car. This was at about 7:30am. During a search, two of the suspects, Lawal and Ibrahim, were arrested. The policeman also recovered the pistol they had with cartridges,” the source disclosed.

Nigerian Tribune learnt that the case was immediately transferred to the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) in Osogbo by the Commissioner of Police, Kehinde Longe. That same day, at about 8pm, the AKS operatives left for Lagos with one of the suspects, Lawal. During preliminary investigation, Lawal had told the AKS operatives that he had been stealing cars where they were parked in Lagos, and had succeeded with six vehicles. He also informed the police of where they used to park the cars inside a compound at Abule Egba in Lagos, which prompted the movement to Lagos.

The recovered Mercedes Benz car recovered from the suspects.

The police source added: “On getting to Lagos after 1am, the AKS operatives went straight to the house but could not find any car there. They started making enquiry. Meanwhile, an item found in the car where it was abandoned in Osun led them to contact one of the suspects on the run, Nafiu, through Lawal. Fortunately, when he came to them at Tabontabon in Agege, he was with the second runaway suspect, Abdullahi. That was how we got all the suspects.”

In an interview with the Nigerian Tribune, Lawal, who hailed from Borno State, said: “I was an okada rider. I decided to join the car-snatching gang after Lagos Task force seized my motorcycle for riding in an unapproved area. I didn’t know there was a law of that nature, so I was taken unawares. It was not that I was a bad person or law breaker.”

Two weeks before his arrest by the AKS, Lawal was reportedly caught for stealing a motorcycle and seriously beaten by a mob. It was said that he would have been lynched save for rescue by the police. He was arrested but could not be prosecuted in court because the complainant refused to show up, happy that he already got his bike back. However, Lawal sustained serious injuries on the arm and leg inflicted on him by the mob.

Another suspect, Nafiu, who is a Kano State indigene, narrated his side thus: “I used to be a truck driver. I’m married and blessed with 10 children. This is the first time I’m participating in armed robbery/car snatching. Before now, what I usually do was to steal cars from where they were parked. I was doing that eight, nine months ago.

“I got to know Abdullahi and Ibrahim through Lawal. Lawal and I were engaged in stealing cars from where they were parked. He was approached by Ibrahim who told us that he had a good job and it would be good for us to collaborate. Abdullahi was the one who had a gun. He didn’t have direct relationship with Lawal and Ibrahim.

“I was the one who brought up the idea of graduating from stealing cars to snatching them. On the day we planned the operation, we went to motor park as intending passengers. When the driver came and we learnt that he was going to Abuja, we decided to go there too. He asked us to pay N10,000 and we agreed. Our plan was to take over the car from the driver while on the way, and return it to Lagos to give to our usual receiver. The receiver told us that he used to take the stolen cars to Cotonou, Benin Republic, to sell, but he had only paid us N700,000 for just a car. It was a Toyota Corolla. We don’t know where he lives or have his phone number. We were just used to meeting at a particular location at Abattoir, Agege.

“We didn’t mean to shoot our victim with the gun we took; we only wanted to use it to scare him. That was why we shot into the air to scare him.”

In his own confession, Abdullahi said: I am popularly known as Abdullahi but my real name is Sule Mohammed from Kano. I’m 20 years old. It’s not up to a year I came to Lagos. I was a bus conductor in Kano before I followed a truck down south. I was selling onions at Sabo in Sagamu, Ogun State.

“I knew Nafiu about two months ago. About the gun, it was Nafiu who directed me to the place I purchased it from. I bought it for N40,000. I paid for it because Nafiu didn’t have money.” When asked for the reason for the gun purchase, the suspect wryly laughed, saying: “It was Nafiu who told me we were going to snatch a vehicle and said that we would not be able to take it by force without a gun.”

The PPRO said that investigation was still ongoing.

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