We raped our victim and video-recorded our sessions with her —Soldier, gang member

Twenty-four-year-old Azeez Olaide was among those privileged to have been recruited into the Nigerian Army in 2015 to serve their fatherland by warding off internal and external aggression and protecting her territorial integrity.

But Olaide, a private in the nation’s Army, showed his true colour and exhibited the criminal tendencies he harboured when he recently used the uniform given to him from the tax of Nigerians to intimidate and forcefully take what belonged to their owners.

Not only that, he also violated one of his victims, a lady already emotionally attached to a man she already has a child for, while he and one of his partners-in-crime also took turns to rape the lady.

As if that was not enough, the soldier-turned-criminal and his friend also recorded a video of the sex acts they had with the lady, beating her into submission in the video and asking her to stare into the camera so that her face would be seen.

In addition, they threatened to send the video to online and make it viral.

What was her offence? Nothing, but the fact they just wanted money and then pleasure of watching themselves live, as if watching a pornographic film.

This account was given by the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Odude on Thursday May 24, during a press briefing the suspect, his two gang members, Lawal Ibrahim (22) and Kehinde Adeniji (29) and 46 others arrested by the command were shown to journalists as part of the police achievements in curbing crime and bringing criminals to justice in the state.

Odude told the Saturday Tribune, which was at the briefing, that the Federal Anti-Robbeyr Squad of the command nabbed Olaide and the two others “for kidnapping, robbery and rape”, after the victims reported their experience to the F-SARS Commander.

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“The gang, led by Azeez Olaide, until the arrest, was responsible for robbery incidents in some parts of the state. The modus operandi of the suspects who were usually clad in military camouflage/ fatigues was to go about kidnapping people, robbing them and sexually abusing female victims.

“The suspects had been carrying out these criminal activities for some time until nemesis caught up with them recently.

“Armed with jack knife and other dangerous weapons, they abducted one Michael (surname withheld) and his partner (names withheld) at Mobil area of Oluyole Estate on April 30 at about 5:00p.m., and took them to a hotel where they kept the victims till the next day before they were released,”the police commissioner disclosed.

He spoke further that “while in captivity, two of the suspects took turns to rape the female victim and videotaped the sexual acts for the purpose of blackmail in the future.

“The suspects also stole the victims’ ATM cards, having forcefully obtained PIN numbers of the cards, and unlawfully withdrew a large sum of money from their bank accounts.”

Exhibits recovered included four pairs of military fatigues, a pair of military desert boot, a fake military identification card, a jack knife, seven different ATM cards belonging to victims, two mobile phones, a Rolex wrist watch, a gold necklace and N135,000.”

Saturday Tribune gathered that Olaide, who was recruited into the Nigerian Army in 2015 left his job in 2016 and had been going about, suing his uniform o extort from innocent Nigerians. He also allegedly gave his uniforms to his two gang members who were always dressed in military uniforms during their operations.

Olaide was also said to have played a fast on his gang members at the last operation, as he kept N153,000 for himself from the money he got from the victims’ accounts, and declared N10,000 as all he got from the accounts.

Saturday Tribune had an interview session with the two of the suspects. Below are the excerpts:

Azeez Olaide, a Private of the Nigerian Army

I joined the Nigerian Army in 2015 after I left Abraham Adesanya Polytechnic, Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State with an ordinary national diploma (OND) certificate in Business Administration.

In 2016, while serving in Maiduguri, Boko Haram terrorists laid ambush for us and I sustained injury from bomb blast.

I was in hospital for six months, after which I was given sick leave to go home. On my return to Maiduguri in December 2016, I spent some months before I was sent back to the bush in March; but my Adjutant said I was not fit to stay with others. He said I should go back. Since then, I have been in Ibadan, Oyo State, to take care of myself.

My salary was later stopped by the Nigerian Army when I did not return to duty. My decision not to return was because of my mother’s insistence that I should not go back, because she did not want to lose me. She said I should find another job to do or go into tailoring that I learnt before.

I started criminal operation in March after coming in contact with Ibrahim Lawal. When we met, he told me he was a soldier. My salary was stopped in March and that was the month I was to wed my wife. We got married on March 17.

When I told Ibrahim of my financial need towards the success of my wedding ceremony, he suggested to me that we should be stopping motorcycle riders with no registration numbers and other offences, so that we could extort money from them. We got N8,000 each time. For the operations, we were always armed with jack knife and bayonet.

We did two operations of such, after which Ibrahim spoke about it to Kehinde, with whom he lives in the same neighbourhood. Kehinde told him we would not make much from such operation, advising that we should target Yahoo boys (internet fraudsters) to make good money.

Based on this, we changed our targets and Kehinde also joined us, wearing army uniform also. We did the third and fourth operations successfully.

We were arrested over the fifth operation which we thought had succeeded, until the operatives of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (F-SARS), Oyo State Command arrested us.

Our last operation

It was at Oluyole Estate area that we saw a man and his female partner. We stopped the guy and asked him to identify himself; he said he was a student and a footballer. I told him he was a Yahoo guy and threatened him with a jack knife. We asked the couple to follow us to the police station.

However, we took them to a hotel at Orita Challenge area of Ibadan. They could not resist us or shout for help because our military uniforms intimidated them and they were scared of the jack knife and bayonet used to threaten them.

We paid for a hotel room and took them there. We searched them and collected their ATM cards. We also collected their phones and jewelry. The lady she had N15,000 and the man said he had N9,000 in their accounts. I left my gang members with them and went to the ATM after collecting their PIN codes.

On opening the lady’s account, I found N155,000, while the man had N9000. I withdrew the N155,000 from the lady’s account and N8,000 from the man’s account. Since the lady said she had just N15,000 in the account, I decide to cheat my gang members. I transferred N145,000 into my account and withdrew N10,000 cash. I also kept the man’s N8,000 for myself and returned to the hotel with just N10,000 which I claimed was all I got from the lady’s account.

We used the money to buy food and drinks and we all ate. We didn’t release them because it was almost midnight.

How we took turns to rape our victim

After eating, I discussed with Ibrahim that we should rape the lady and he agreed with me. We paid for another room where we made Kehinde to stay with the man while Ibrahim and I were with the lady. We asked her to pull off her dress and she started pleading with us not to rape her. We did not heed to her pleas, however.

We threatened her with jack knife and she was scared, so she started undressing. That was when we took turns to rape her. We had two rounds each.

Recording rape act

We recorded our acts with her and forced her to look into the camera. When she tried to hide her face, we slapped her into submission. We did the recording for pleasure. We were ignorant of our actions. When we later watched the video at home, we felt bad about what we did.

Ibrahim Lawal’s confession

I live in a room in my father’s house at Iwo Road area of Ibadan. He and my mother are no longer together. My father also has many wives. I was at the Nigerian Army training in Jaji, Kaduna State but ran away from there when I fell ill. I met Olaide in full uniform in March this year. I approached him and told him I also went through training. That was how we became friends.

He told me about his wedding and how he was short of cash. I suggested to him that he could make money from commercial riders whose motorcycles did not have registration numbers. Later, Kehinde advised that we should go for Yahoo boys. He joined us and was pointing at those suspected, because he was into Yahoo crime at a time in the past.

How we violated our female victim

I had been having sex before but since the beginning of this year, I have not had sex.

When we got to the hotel, I was thinking we would get like N5,000. Later, when Olaide said he was going to have sex with our captive, I told him I wanted to leave the hotel to get a girl for myself. But he told me not to bother doing that, as both us would have the lady.

I went to tell Kehinde about Olaide’s plans but he frowned at it. He said he could not understand why I was allowing Olaide to control me. He said he didn’t like what we intended to do, remarking that it was bad. He also said that we should return the lady’s phone and chain to her in the morning.

But I still joined Olaide and raped the lady twice.

I know that I have committed a sin and it is also bad. I regretted my action. When my father heard of what I did, he was rushed to the hospital (crying). He couldn’t believe it.

Victim’s male partner narrates experience

We were standing by the roadside, waiting for a friend to pick us up. All of a sudden, three men in military uniform walked up to me. They asked me what I was doing for a living and I said I was a footballer. They asked me for a means of identification and I showed them.

They later told me that I looked like a suspect who came to rob in the area. I replied that it was even a long time I visited the area, but because of the uniform they were wearing, we were scared and intimidated. People were around us and looking at everything, but they were scared of the military uniform.

They asked me and my wife to mount a motorcycle, saying that they were taking us to the barracks. However, they took us to a hotel. Still, we were scared because of the uniform and the weapons they were wielding. And it seemed they knew the people working in the hotel.

They took us to a room and locked us up. They were beating us, and even beat my wife in my presence. They collected our phones and jewelry. They asked for our ATM cards and went to withdraw money from our accounts.

They later took my wife to a separate room and released us in the morning. After we were released, my wife told me that she was sexually molested and raped.