Police parade Ikorodu robbery suspects

THE Lagos State Police Command yesterday paraded four members of the notorious gang that participated in the Ikorodu bank robbery on Wednesday June 24, 2015. The suspects are one Monday Omoboye aka Alarm Blow, 39years old, Agbojule Bright (25years), Monday Ikuesan (37years) and Promise Abiwa (20years).

The suspects confessed to have participated in various robbery attacks both on water and highways across the country, including the robbery of First City Monument Bank (FCMB) in Lekki, where three policemen and two civilians were killed. Three exotic SUV Cars were recovered from them.

The outgoing Commissioner of Police in charge of Lagos State command, Aderanti, who carried out his last official assignment in Lagos yesterday before handing over to his successor, Fatai Owoseni, said one of the suspects, Promise Abiwa, was traced to Igbokoda in Ondo State, where he was arrested.

He said: “On June 28, 2015, one of the key members of the gang named Monday Omoboye was arrested in his hideout in Ikorodu. The said Omoboye was the boat operator that drove the robbers’ speedboat in both the Lekki FCMB robbery and WEMA bank robberies on June 1, 2015 and also the Zenith and First Banks robberies on June 24, 2015. “On June 29, 2015, at about 4p.m., one Agbojule Bright was traced to another hideout and was arrested with the Lexus Jeep, which he bought from his own share (about N2 million) of the loot.

Same day, another gang member named Ikuesan Monday was arrested.” Eyewitness accounts had it that the robbers made away with millions of Naira from the Zenith and First Bank robbery operations in Ikorodu that fateful day.

In a bid to frustrate security operatives from successfully trailing them, the robbers purportedly set ablaze the three SUVs that brought them for the operation. Compared to the March 12 robbery attack in Lekki, the robbers, shooting sporadically, escaped with their loots through the Ipakodo jetty at Ikorodu, using two motorboats.

The Guardian investigation revealed that police got wind that soldiers in Ondo, who were on stop-and-search duty accosted one of the suspects while on his way to his hometown in Okitikpupa, Ondo state.

During the stop-and-search, bundles of new N1000 notes with bank seals were found in his bag. The soldiers, who were also at alert on the manhunt for the robbers, contacted the Lagos Police command on the development.

The out-going Lagos Police Commissioner, Aderanti, has completed the handover of the suspects to the command for further interrogation and subsequent arrest of the others still at large.

Those arrested so far, have confessed to the crime and said that they spent their proceeds to buy exotic cars and landed properties. The police have recovered the three cars. The suspects also claimed that one of them who is still at large dressed like a woman to distract and create fear during the raid.