by Oge Okonkwo

The residents of Iju -Ishaga and its environs can now breathe a sigh of relief as a dreaded gang which had been terrorizing the area and were specialized in raiding, killing and maiming their victims which included officers of the law and collecting their rifles, were nabbed by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command.

Until their arrest, the dare devil gang was hardly challenged, and wasted no time leaving death in their week. In one instance, a security guard was shot dead and some of the victim’s colleagues were severely injured. In another, a food seller who narrowly escaped death after receiving a bullet to the head when a house belonging to two brothers were raided.

In another incident,the gang opened fire on policemen who were on duty, killing one and injuring others, snatching two AK47 rifles from the officers.

Daily Independent reports:

But the day of reckoning came penultimate Sunday at 3 am when the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command led by Abba Kyari, a Superintendent of Police (SP) smashed the notorious gang. In the ensuring exchange of gun fire between the police and the gang, Taiye Agege a member of the gang was killed while seven other suspects including a woman were arrested.

Those arrested and now in custody include 29-year old Ife Olubaba, believed to be the leader of the gang. He was a member of the notorious gang led by Abiodun Egunjobi otherwise known as Abbey Godogodo who was arrested few Months ago. Police authorities say Abiodun who evaded arrest when the Godogodo gang was smashed formed and led the new gang. Others are  Saheed Wasiu, 23, Segun Idowu 20, Wasiu Rafiu 23, Odelade Kabiru, 26, Waliu Sonni, 29, and Taiwo Obafunsho, a 28year-old woman.

Items recovered from the suspects who were paraded before the Press by Umar Manko, Lagos State Commissioner of Police penultimate Monday include two AK 47 rifles snatched from police men at Iju Division when they attacked the station, one (1) pump action gun, four locally made pistols, two fully loaded AK47 magazines, one hundred and thirty-five live cartridges and one Hyundai Tucson Jeep with registration No. MUS 350 BG.

According to Manko, the arrest was in follow up to the gang’s attack at Iju Police Station on October 9, 2013 during which two police rifles were snatched by the robbers. He said that following the incident, he mandated SP Kyari the O/C SARS to launch a manhunt for the robbers and recover the snatched rifles. Acting on the directive of CP who also closely monitored the operation, the SARS team smashed the gang of eight armed robbers. The robbers have confessed to carrying out series of robbery attacks within Lagos and Ogun States.

Taiwo Obafunsho, the 28-year old female member of the gang and few months pregnant confessing her involvement with the robbery gang in an interview with Daily Independent said  she was introduced to the gang leader Ife Olubaba by her friend while she was living in Mushin, Lagos.

“It was then I knew one woman who introduced me to Ife Olubaba. Anytime I go to Ife’s house he usually gives me money. One day, he called me to join him where he was going to carry a vehicle, I followed him, when we got there, he asked me to come down and at the end he gave me N20, 000. He delivered the stolen car to somebody before giving me the money. I only follow in the car. I do not do any work apart from sitting in the vehicle. In the second operation, it was phones they collected. I was inside the car, after collecting the phones they gave me N5, 000. It was twice I went with them for operation, this one that they killed the police, I did not follow them, the two times I follow them, they did not give me gun, I was just following them empty handed. I normally wait for them inside the car”, Obafunsho confessed.

However, residents of Iju-Ishaga who had been under the siege of the gang argue that

The fair complexioned woman played active role in all the operation carried out in the area, including the one in which a security guard was killed last month. They say she participated in ordering victims to surrender their valuables and other belongings during the room to room robbery of two buildings belonging to two brothers.

Sahhed Wasiu confessed that police arrested him as a result of armed robbery. “I was involved. It was one of my brothers that involved us in the killing of a policeman, I was not aware that they were going to kill a police officer. It was my first time to operate with them. They lied to me that they were going to give me a driving job because I know how to drive vehicles. I later drove their vehicle to the place, not knowing that they want to kill a police officer, after killing the police, they put the rifles they collected in the car. I don’t even know the particular place we went for the operation but I know it was here in Lagos. I did not carry gun. It was Taiye that even drove the other car they put the guns after they killed the police.

Waliu Sanni said that in one of the operations Taiye Agege took them to, they did not succeed in robbing anything, “so Taiye was now very angry and said we should go and collect police rifles, Ife is our leader, he was the one that instructed us to move close to the police, at the round about where the policemen where.
So immediately Ife and Taiye got down, I was still in the car, they opened fire at the police, after three minutes, I saw them coming with two police guns. One other guy Ahmed was inside the car with me. Police is still looking for him. He was the person that collected the guns from Ife and Taiye and put in the car.

He was also the man who was busy shooting at the police vehicle parked at the roundabout. He deflated all the tyres with bullets. After that, they jumped inside the cars and we left. As at that time, I did not know they killed policeman. It was when we got to Egbada that Ife told me that they killed even police”.

Waliu Sonni confessed that he had robbed with the gang on three occasions in Agege, Ikeja, Iyana Ipaja and Iju-Ishaga. “It was in Iju-Ishaga that the robbery that led to the killing of the Policeman took place. For the robbery at Iju where a guard was killed, it was not our gang that carried out that operation. I don’t know Godogodo. It was here in SARS cell that I know him.”