Commissioner of police, Lagos State Police Command, Fatai Owoseni, on Monday, paraded three fake soldiers, one fake Air force personnel and two car snatchers.

The names of the suspects were given as Chukwuma Ikechukwu, aged 31 from Ohafia, Abia State; Isreal Damascus, 32, a Ghanaian, who specialised in car snatching; Lucky Anene, 25, from Okuzu Village in Delta State; Makus Gabriel, 22, from Ngwa in Abia State; Ikemefuna Ude, 39, from Agwu, Enugu State, as fake Soldiers, and Daiye Tijani, 28, from Ikire, Osun State, arrested as fake Air force personnel.

About five cars and two jeeps were recovered, which include a Toyota Jeep BNS513AA, Toyota Camry TGD733AA and ANA360AA, among others.

In his confession, the suspect Daiye Tijani said he was into children entertainment, but procured the Air force uniform from his friend Mutui, a soldier, to enable him pose as an Air force officer when he goes to meet his fiancée, Shade. Unfortunately, he was arrested in a bus at Iyana Ipaja.

Ikemefuna, who claimed to be a printer, said the other suspects came to his office at Ojo to scan and print a military identity card from him at N700 each, and that they claimed they lost their original identity cards, not knowing they wanted to commit crime with it.

Lucky Anene said he wore the military uniform to escort contraband cars not knowing they were snatched. Isreal, who claimed to be a driver, said he came to Nigeria in 2011 and met with a friend named Jerry. It was Jerry that introduced him into car stealing. Though married with children, the suspect also claimed he got his driving job through a recruitment agency in Lagos.

He said he had done two successful operations but met his waterloo in the third operations.

Commenting on the kidnap of the wife of Mr Steve Nwosu, CP Owoseni said it was a case of armed robbery when two or three buildings were robbed, and the wife of Stephen Nwosu, Toyin, was taken hostage and the suspect escaped by boat at Ago Okota area at 3:00am on Monday. A source however revealed to our correspondent that the kidnappers of Mrs. Toyin had requested for N100 million as ransom.

On the raid of people who sell noodles late hours like 1:00am and 2:00am, CP Owoseni said it was necessary as armed robbers use those spots as hide outs for their weapons before going on operation, including drug sellers who use the spots to sell hard drugs.

On whether the marine police has become moribund and non-functional since armed robbers and kidnappers now use the creeks to escape after operations, Owoseni said the marine police is still active and still patrols the water ways. He said, “Looking at how wide the sea is, it takes a whole lot to patrol the water ways, but what we do now is to partner with members of the community, like forming joint patrol team with their vigilante group.

“Even if you post one million policemen here in Lagos, it will not be enough, rather everyone should be part of the fight against the hoodlums, especially in community policing.

Reeling out his achievement within the two month he assumed office as CP Lagos State Police Command, CP Owoseni said he received 78 distress calls that armed robbers were about to operate or were operating, and he was able to void 67 operations, and that about 101 suspects were arrested and some had already been charged to court or remanded in prison custody awaiting trials.

According to him, there was a time his men exchanged fire with armed robbers and 10 of the robbers lost their lives, and 60 different types of guns were recovered, including the machine used in making gun was also recovered in Markurdi, and 247 different ammunitions. On what he will do with the guns, he said he had already started the process whereby the gun would be destroyed to avoid recycling them during parade of robbers.

 

Source: Daily Times