A robbery suspect has in Osun State stunned a combined team of police
officers and members of a vigilance group when he survived 20 bullets.
Adedeji Ojo, who is in his early 30s, was a member of a four-man robbery gang that operated on
the
Ibadan/Akure Expressway and Osu/Ilesha Road in Osun State for months before their arrest recently.
Ojo lived in Lagos before joining the daredevil gang, which terrorised residents.
The bandits’ mode of operation involved littering the road with iron and
nails. Any unsuspecting motorist that steps on them would have his
tyres deflated. As the driver attempts to fix the tyres, the gang would
emerge from their hideout usually in the bush and attack the victims.
They often robbed and raped their victims.
The state’s Deputy Commissioner of Police, Baba Tijjani, said the
command had received several complaints from vigilance groups in Osu,
some kilometers to Ilesha that it was as a result of the gang’s seeming
“invincibility” that the local security men sought for police
reinforcement.
The suspect, who received 20 dane-gun bullets from the vigilance group,
confessed that he belonged to the four-man gang. The combined team of
policemen and the vigilance group laid an ambush for the robbers at a
popular spot they attacked motorists.
Ojo said, “We are four members in our gang. We robbed and raped
passengers along Ibadan/Akure Expressway. We came from Lagos State to
rob passengers on the expressway.
“We robbed a 14-seater bus along Akure Expressway around 10.00pm. The
victims were old women and ladies. We told them to lie down in the bush
and robbed the old women and collected N43,000. My gang raped some
ladies among them.
“After the operation, my own share was just N9,000. It was the gang
leader, Uche, who promised me that after each robbery operation, I would
be receiving N1million.
“That was why I followed them from Lagos State to Ibadan/Akure Expressway and robbed passengers.
“It was when we wanted to rob another bus that we used our car
deliberately to hit a trailer lorry, which prompted some buses to stop.
We started to rob passengers, we chased them into the bush. It was when
we were coming out of the bush that we saw another 14-seater bus. We
attempted to rob the passengers, but they opened fire on us. I received
20 bullets from dane guns and I called my other gang members on phone to
rescue me.
“As they were coming, the local security men and the police again opened
fire on them and one of them died, while two others escaped with bullet
wounds.”
Asked whether his family knew he was a robber, he said: “I didn’t tell
my wife that I am an armed robber. I lied to my wife that I wanted to go
for night vigil. My wife always thought I was in the church at night.”
Investigation confirmed that during the exchange of fire between the
gang and the combined team of vigilance group and police, one of the
robbers was killed, two escaped with bullet wounds, while Ojo survived
the gunshots.
The novelty in the operation of the gang was that the members also used
their car to hit oncoming vehicles or trailers in the night and in the
process they would rob the passengers. Usually, it was gathered that
their targets were mainly women who usually go to sell their farm
produce at the Owena Market, a boundary town between Osun and Ondo
States, along the Ilesa/Akure Road.
The Osu community had complained several times over the activities of
the gang as they usually robbed motorists between 9.00p.m and 10.00p.m
daily. T
he police and vigilance group laid an ambush for the robbers at the
usual operation time. A member of the vigilance group, Rasaki Lamidi,
said the robbers had tormented the community for so long.
Lamidi said, “Our market women were robbed and raped whenever they ply
Ibadan/Akure Road and we have lodged several complaints to the men of
the Nigerian police in Osu.
“We received the message that they always come to the Akure Expressway.
We reinforced and teamed up with the policemen from Osu Division. We
used a public bus. When we got there, we pretended as if our bus had a
fault and when they saw us, they wanted to rob us and we opened fire on
them.
“What surprised us was that we shot one of the suspects with two rounds
of dane gun bullets in his back but he didn’t die. We were able to kill
one of the armed robbers and two escaped with bullet wounds.”
Lamidi said that they are currently enjoying peace in Osu community,
noting that there are no hoodlums on the Akure/Ibadan Expressway again.
Daily Sun reporter visited Osu where the residents were all rejoicing, while some victims came out to identify the suspect.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mrs. Kalafiate Helen Adeyemi, confirmed the report.
Mrs. Adeyemi said she had received several complaints and petitions over
the spate of robberies on the Ibadan/Akure and Osu/Ilesa roads. She
ordered the policemen to join forces with the vigilance group on the
expressway by patrolling the highway.
Adeyemi said that it was the combined effort of the group and the
policemen from the Osu Police Division that led to the bursting of the
gang.
