by ‘Jola Sotubo

Operatives of the police force in Lagos have arrested four persons, including a pastor and a doctor, on suspicion of armed robbery.

The gang, specialized, in vandalizing and stealing from Automated Teller Machines (ATM), are said to have been linked to a robbery last year which left 3 policemen dead.

The doctor said that he planned to use the money gotten to renew his practice licence while the pastor admitted that he joined the gang through a friend.

Vanguard reports:

This came as seven more AK-47 rifles, two K-2 rifles, one pump action and 17 AK-47 magazines, fully loaded, were recovered by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, Ikeja, at one of the gang’s hideouts in Egbeda area of Lagos.

The recovery brought the total number of rifles recovered from members of the gang, which specialized in breaking into banks’ Automated Teller Machines, ATMs, to 15, while 10 of the 14 member-gang have been gunned down in different encounters in the last eight weeks.

Vanguard also gathered that 13 of the 15 recovered arms were those of policemen killed during the bandits’ operations.

The house was allegedly owned by one of the robbers identified as Saviour Confidence, who was gunned down during an operation, at 49, Alimosho Road, Egbeda area. It was gathered that Confidence, who was an ex-bank staff, fled to South Africa after some members of his gang were killed during a robbery at Ilasamaja area.

Lagos State Commissioner of Police, CP, Umar Manko, who paraded the suspects at the command’s headquarters, Ikeja, gave their identities as Jonathan Nsirim, Tajudeen Dosunmu, Isaiah Willie and Tairu Kareem. He said members of the gang were not just responsible for the Ayobo bank robbery, but they killed three policemen.

Meanwhile, the suspects confessed being members of the gang during an interview with Vanguard.

Dosunmu, the medical doctor, said he joined the gang because he needed money to renew his operating licence. The 65-year-old man said: “I am one of the gang’s transporters and I usually help to transport their gas cylinders to robbery scenes.

“I am the owner of Boluwatife Kola Hospital, located at Igando, behind the police station and in 2012, my operating licence got expired and I had no money to renew it and I closed it down.

Isaiah Willie, on his part, said he is a Pastor at Happy People Bible Church, but joined the gang through Confidence who he described as a long time friend.

According to him, “Confidence has been a long time friend of mine and he asked me to use my car to carry gas cylinders and other instruments to places where they were to operate, after which he will give me N40,000.

“I usually don’t go into the bank with them, my job is to drive the instruments to the bank and wait by the car.”