Kirikiri prison wonder: How inmates organised robberies from cells

There is a saying that there is nothing new under the sun, yet certain things are stranger than fiction. But the wonders happening in Kirikiri prison in Lagos aren’t fictional. They are distressing realities. Ace crime reporter, OLABULO OLALEKAN, serves the ‘juicy’ details.

When the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, on Tuesday, paraded some robbery suspects before newsmen, what he did not disclose about their operations was more than his disclosures. It has been discovered by police operatives that some recent robbery incidents in the state were actually planned and coordinated by certain inmates of Kirikiri Prisons.

The inmates are said to have continually terrorised residents of Ayobo Ipaja and its surroundings.

Although the Nigerian Prison Service has said that the situation remains largely unsubstantiated and uninvestigated, many of the major armed robbery and car snatching incidents around Ayobo Ipaja and neighbouring Lagos communities have been found by the police to have been coordinated by three inmates of one of the prisons after they had been arrested for similar offences in the past.

Apart from the three inmates, the police in Lagos State, through their Rapid Response Squad, had arrested seven other members of the gang with six exotic vehicles stolen during recent operations of the gang recovered in Awka and Onitsha in Anambra State.

The leader of the gang, one Odudu, according to police sources, was reportedly planning another robbery operation from the prison when policemen arrested members of his gang. He had allegedly instructed his gang members to target owners of two Toyota Camry (Muzzle) cars at a particular part of Ayobo. The inmate reportedly told the gang members to give the money from the sale of one of the vehicles to his lawyer to facilitate his release from prison.

Apart from Odudu, Sunday (whose surname is unknown) and Tosin (whose surname is also unknown), who are also inmates of Kirikiri prison, have been identified by the police as coordinators of crimes in the state, despite their incarceration.

The police arrested Usima, a younger brother to Odudu; Samuel Sokunbi, Augustine Uchenna, Efe Omokaro, Abayomi James, Benedict Udoh, who procured fake customs papers with which the stolen vehicles were sold, and Joseph Uzuazomaro. They were paraded before newsmen on Tuesday by the commissioner of police.

 

Tales from victims

Trouble started for members of the gang when they attacked a resident of Ayobo Ipaja. The gang had reportedly forced their way into their victim’s apartment, after bending the burglary proof iron bars in one of the rooms. One of them crept into the apartment and opened the doors for the others.

In a police document sighted by Saturday Tribune, one of the victims of the gang’s operations (name withheld) told the police that: “On Friday, the 25th of August 2017, four armed robbers broke into my house through the burglary proof installed in the store of the house. They came with guns around 2.00 a.m. and woke me and members of my family from our sleep and started beating and harassing us. They said that somebody told them to come and collect N16,000,000 (sixteen million naira) from me and that they should kill me. I told them that I had not seen such amount of money in my life. In the end, they collected all the money and all the phones, both the old and the new ones, in the house.

“There were five of us that were robbed when they came and they collected all our phones. They also ransacked the whole house. They went away with our laptops and Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards and forced us to tell them our PINs [personal identification numbers] at gunpoint. It got to a time they had to tie my hands and legs. They continued to threaten to kill me while others continued to ransack our rooms. They scattered everywhere and turned the wardrobe upside down. They were there for more than two hours.

“Later, they opened the front door and started parking our household items and appliances like generator, DVD player, television sets, pressing irons and even wall clocks. They parked everything into one of our vehicles but they did not go at that time. They waited till around 5.00 a.m. when workers and traders were moving around. That was when they went away.”

Another victim of the gang’s operations (name withheld) told his own story as well: “I was robbed on the 5th of September, 2017 at about 1.45 a.m. There were six of them and they came with a short-gun, bottles and a cutlass. They took away my car, a Toyota Camry, television sets, wristwatches, three mobile phones and many other appliances and they left around 2.45 a.m.” The victim added that “immediately they left, I went to Ipaja Ayobo Police Station and we were later transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja. I was very happy when the police at RRS called me that my car had been recovered.”

Also Read: Nigeria Prison Service and the story of Ezinwa

How inmates called the shots

Investigations by the police showed that Odudu was the link between those who provided information on the targets and how to penetrate the locations. The man and some of the gang members reportedly met in Kirikiri where they struck a bond and formed a group.

“Melvin Umeh was released from the prison before the other members of the gang, who were convicted for robbery. He continued to maintain his contact with Odudu. Although he had not been going for operations with the gang members, he had been buying all the snatched vehicles from them,” a police source told Saturday Tribune.

It was gathered from one of the suspects, in the course of an interview at the RRS office in Lagos, that whenever the gang went for an operation, the sharing of the loot was extended to the prison inmates. The gang, it was said, constantly sent recharge cards to the inmates in their confinement.

Omokaro Efe, who was the first to be arrested, told Saturday Tribune that “it was Odudu that told us where to rob and the kinds of vehicles to snatch. What we usually did was to go to the area in the afternoon and look for an uncompleted building where we hid our things (robbery tools).”

The suspect, who claimed to have been initiated into the gang by Abayomi, narrated that “I was a security man with Oando Company, Apapa. My salary was N25,000. On the 25th of August, one of my friends, Abayomi, called me and asked me to see him in Ajegunle. He told me that they wanted to go and rob and that they needed a gun. I told him that I knew someone, a cult member who had a locally-made pistol. I promised him that I would help to get a gun for the operation. I collected the gun from Chukwudi. After two weeks, I returned the gun and gave him a N5,000 compensation. I also collected the gun for another operation and equally gave him N50,000.”

Melvin said: “Sometime early this year, one of my friends, whom I met while in prison last year, called me on my mobile phone number. He told me that his brother had a car to sell which he advised me to go and pay for. The next day, I left Onitsha for Lagos to pay for the vehicle. Odudu sent his brother’s phone number to me from prison. I called Isima (Odudu’s brother) and he asked me to come down to Ajegunle for the business.

“Initially, I was scared because I thought that it was a setup and because I knew that the vehicle was a stolen one. After paying for the car, we started having a good relationship. Anytime they went out for operation and succeeded, I paid for the vehicle. I have bought more than three cars from them. I have been in this business for more than two years. There was a time I was arrested by SARS and charged to court.”

Isima also confessed to the crime. He stated that most of the activities of the gang were coordinated by his brother from Kirikiri prison. The suspect also said that members of the gang stayed around the Ajegunle area of Apapa and that their operations were mainly around Ayobo Ipaja. “Odudu told us where to rob. He had information on that area. He was the one that also linked us with the buyer,” the suspect added.

The state Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, while speaking on the arrest of the suspects, stated that six vehicles – three Toyota Camry saloon cars, a Toyota Matrix, a Mercedes Benz 4Matic Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), an Acura Legend SUV, as well as home appliances – were recovered from the suspects.

Also Read: Man who impersonated police officer sent to kirikiri

‘How I formed my robbery gang in prison’

Apart from the above arrests, there have been ealier ones traced to the suspects’ links with prison life. For instance, twenty-seven-year old Ogbona Francis was, some months ago, arrested by operatives of the Inspector General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team for major robbery incidents around the Aguda, Ijeshatedo and Surulere areas of Lagos State. He was also a ‘graduate’ of prison tutorials on formation and operation of deadly robbery gangs.

Ogbona, in his confession to Saturday Tribune, said he formed his robbery gang while serving a jail term.

Francis, a former taxi driver in Lagos, said he was driving stolen vehicles for armed robbers when he was arrested. He said he was driving one of such vehicles to the eastern part of Nigeria when they were intercepted by operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service.

The customs personnel, while trying to confirm the authenticity of the vehicle, called the mobile phone number on the particulars which Francis had submitted to them and the owner of the vehicle told the callers that the vehicle was snatched at gunpoint. Francis was eventually arrested by the customs men and handed over to the police for prosecution. His partner, Uchena, escaped.

The suspect was eventually charged to court and remanded in Kirikiri prison, where he met Chisom and Raheem, both of whom later became his friends. The trio, according to Francis, used to meet at many Indian hemp joints around.

“They knew me as a taxi driver. They told me they were also arrested for robbery. We became very close in the prison,” Francis said on how he struck a relationship with Raheem and Chisom. Francis also said that the duo of Raheem and Chisom were arrested for robbery and that they were both released before him but he continued to maintain close relationship with them, while also developing a new relationship with another inmate, Tosin.

Tosin and Francis were released around the same time and they instantly formed a new gang and became a nightmare for car owners and residents of Surulere. The duo of Francis and Tosin also got in touch with Raheem and Chisom, who were earlier released from prison and formed a “formidable” robbery team.

On their operation, Francis said that less than two weeks after they were released from prison, his gang operated in Ojuelegba, Aguda and Okota, where no fewer than four vehicles were snatched from drivers. The suspect told Saturday Tribune that the gang used taxi for their operations. “What we did was to first snatch a taxi, which we used for our operations. The first vehicle that was snatched was handed over to Alhaji at Cele Bus Stop. After some days, he refused to pick my calls. Later, he told me that the vehicle was tracked to him and recovered,” the suspect claimed.

On why he returned to armed robbery, the suspect said the decision was his way of avenging what he described as abandonment by Uchenna who allegedly initiated him into robbery. “When I was still in prison, I called Uchenna and he told me that he wanted to travel overseas. I was very sad. I told him not to go because he pushed me into prison. Later, he did not pick my calls again. That was when I decided to rob again.”

 

We’ll write the Prison Service –Police 

A senior officer at the state police command spoke on the roles of the inmates in the robbery attacks on Lagos communities. He told Saturday Tribune that the police were already making efforts to prosecute the inmates. The officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “The case is not closed yet. We have begun moves to notify the prison service of the roles of the inmates. We will ask them to be handed over to us for investigations and they will be prosecuted. There is a process and we want to duly follow the process. What will happen is that, if we are able to convince the judge of their involvement, they would be sentenced alongside the new members of the gang. What we need to do is to ensure proper and diligent investigations into their involvement. But what I can assure you is that we are continuing the investigations. Every person that has been involved will be made to answer for his role.

 

Nigerian Prison Service speaks

In his reaction to the claim that inmates coordinate robbery operations from the prison, the Public Relations Officer of the Nigerian Prison Service, Francis Enobore, described the report as an allegation that required to be properly investigated .

He told Saturday Tribune that the prison authorities try as much as possible to ensure that inmates do not have access to communication gadgets, although he admitted that phones are still being smuggled into prisons, a situation which he described as a universal problem and not peculiar to Nigeria.

“Inmates are not allowed access to communication gadgets. These gadgets constitute danger. They use them to plan jailbreaks. That is why they are searched from time to time and officers have been sanctioned for allowing inmates to have access to communication gadgets,” Enobore said.

On the robbery claim, the prison spokesperson said: “Anybody can accuse anybody of any crime. They are mere allegations until they have been proved. Has anybody established that the inmates were coordinating the robbery operations? How has it been established that they were in prison?”