A member of one of the different gangs of armed robbers that attacked banks and other places in Ekiti, Ondo and Oyo States has described his friend, Olaoluwa, who died in the custody of the police as ‘a strong’ member of different robbery and burglary gangs.
Olatunbosun Ojo, a member of one of the gangs that recently attacked two banks in Ile Oluji town of Ondo State said that though his deceased friend did not follow the bank robbers, he bought two of the guns that were used for the Ile Oluji banks operation for them.
He, however, pointed out that the deceased man was not aware of the banks’ operations but that he bought the guns for him to be used for other robbery operations and burglary.
The deceased Olaoluwa died in the custody of the Inspector General of Police Special Tactical Squad in an incident that has become a subject of investigations to the police.
Olaoluwa was arrested by the IGP team in Ibadan and was used to track Olatunbosun, who confessed to having participated in a series of bank robberies including that of Idanre, Oye and that Ile Oluji on Feb 6th 2020.
Tribune Online gathered that the deceased Olaoluwa was initially arrested in Ibadan, Oyo State to track Olatunbosun, who was wanted for bank robbery is but was transferred to Lagos after preliminary investigations revealed that he was into armed robbery.
Olatunbosun said “I met Olaoluwa around Queen Cinema area of Ekotedo in Ibadan, where I used to buy gas cooker accessories. He was the leader of the touts there.”
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“We became friends with each other and we used to gamble at a place, where he and other guys play ‘whot’ cards in the area and we got very close.”
The suspect also said, “one day, he told me that a boutique owner near his house was fumbling to him and that he wanted to teach him a lesson by burgling his shop .”
“Because I didn’t trust him. I told him that I was not interested but later I got to know that he organized some other people to loot the shop.”
“His wife should be able to confirm that the burglars, who burgled the boutique all converged and met in their house before they went for the operation.”
Olatunbosun also stated that he followed him to two places, where they stole bags of rice, including the ones that were meant for political party members and how they also attacked residential buildings in Oyo and Ondo States.
“He bought two locally-made pistols for me. He bought the first one for N30000 and the second one for N15000. We took the guns to our operations.”
The suspect confessed that he used the guns to join other groups to the last February robbery in Ile Oluji. He ( Olaoluwa) was not aware of the bank robbery. He also participated in the Oye and Idanre bank robberies. He was also not aware of those ones.”
An ex-convict, 54-year-old Benjamin Anjoein, who claimed to have lived in the deceased Olaoluwa’s house for two years confessed to having followed the gang to the burglary incident at the boutique.
He said, “I lived in his house for two years, after I came back from prison and when I told him that I needed to rent my own apartment, he suggested the burglary of the boutique.”
Benjamin also said, “we broke into the boutique and after selling all that we took, he gave me N10000 and promised me that I would get more from another operation.”
“One of Olaoluwa’s sisters, Omolade was aware that I had a gun. There was a time I introduced him into robbery. I even showed her my gun but she declined. He added”
The man also said that ” We were together when he died. He wanted to go and urinate and he fell down and we tried to give him the drugs that were given to him in Ibadan by his wife but it had finished and we had to call the police, who took him to the hospital, where he died.”
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