Ladies identify ‘one-chance’ robber in public

The police in Ogun State have arrested one Abiodun Makinde, a suspected ‘one chance’ robber after being sighted and identified in public by two ladies, who were once his victims.

Makinde is believed to be a member of a one-chance syndicate that terrorises commuters along Sango/Owode-Idiroko road in Ogun.

His arrest followed a distress call by his victims – Gloria Edoh and Saidat Akinola, who reported that they were attacked and robbed when they boarded a taxi from Owode to Sango, but on getting to Olokopupo area of Atan Ota, two men they met in the car, suddenly pulled knives with which they forced them to give up their belongings.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, who made this known in a statement yesterday, said while the sum of N37,000 was snatched from one of the victims, N480,000 was forcibly collected from the other person by the gang as well as techno phones before shoving their victims off the taxi, and inflicting serious injuries on them.

Oyeyemi said the victims subsequently found their way to a nearby hospital for treatment, but while coming from the hospital, they sighted and identified Makinde as one of the hoodlums who robbed them, which cause them to raise the alarm.  
 
“The alarm attracted the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Atan-Ota, SP Abiodun Salau, who was on routine patrol of the area with his men and they raced to the scene where the suspect was arrested with the help of members of the public. 
 
“On getting to the station, one woman (name withheld) who had earlier complained of similar incident also identified the suspect as one of the hoodlums who robbed and raped her on September 12, and made away with her pants,” he said. 
   
While noting that the suspect has confessed to the two separate robbery incidents, Oyeyemi said the Commissioner of Police, CP Bashir Makama, has ordered the transfer of the suspect to Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) for discreet investigation.