[size=18pt]Dead end for armed robbers[/size]

Olalekan Olabulo, Lagos - Updated: Tuesday 30-06-2009

The news of the victory recorded by the police in Sango area command of the Ogun State Police Command, a few days ago, spread like wild fire during hamattan period. Men of the Special Anti- Robbery Squad from the state police headquarters, Eleweran, attached to the Sango area command, had engaged, a gang of heavily armed robbers in a fierce shootout that shook the entire Ijoko Community in Ogun State to its foundation. At the end of the battle, five members of the gang were killed.

Before that encounter, there were intermittent cases of armed robbery in the area hardly, a day passed without a major robbery operation in the ancient town being reported. Residents of the town lived in fear.

The robbers took advantage of the deplorable condition of the roads in the area to wreak havoc on the law abiding residents.

The killing of the robbers instantly became a juicy topic for several reasons. One , the residents of the town would, at least, heave a sigh of relief, as some of their tormentors had been killed. Another reason it became a talking point was simply because the police in their attempts to show off, took the corpses of the robbers to some places where two of the robbers lived in Ota. Everybody wanted to have a glimpse of the corpses, to identify if their relation was not involved

Crime and Security reliably gathered that one of the felled robbers confessed that he was an indigene of the town, but also that his gang was responsible for some of the major robberies recorded in the area. The deceased robbers was also said to have claimed that another member of the gang, whose name he did not mention before he died, was also from the town. The other members, according to him, were people from other places including people of Igbo extraction.”

Crime and Security gathered that the bubble on the activities of the robbers burst a few days ago after intelligence reports on the series of armed robbery operations in Sango revealed that, one of the gangs that were terrorising the town, had its base in Ijoko, a suburb in Sango Ota. The gang had, on the day before the shootout, undertaken a major robbery operation in the town and had escaped to their hideout , unknown to them that the police were on their trail . The gang had reportedly invaded a residential building in Ijoko, when they had an encounter with the police.

Crime and Security was informed that the police team caught the armed robbers unawares, when they invaded Ijoko and engaged the robbers in a gun battle that lasted about one hour. The robbers, on sighting the police team, reportedly opened fire on them and met a fierce opposition from the policemen.

A resident of Ijoko, Samuel who is a teacher in one of the secondary schools in Ota, while speaking with Crime and Security, described the gun battle as “total war.” In his words: “In all my life, I have never witnessed this kind of thing between the police and armed robbers.” He further stated that the thunderous gun shots shook Ijoko to its foundation as it occurred in the very early hours of the day, at a time when residents of the area were still asleep.

A police source who pleaded anonymity, while speaking with Crime and Security, stated that the robbers had in the early hours of Monday, 8th June 2009, invaded a building in Ijoko when the police received a distress call and sent its men to the scene. Crime and Security was informed by the police source that the Area Commander in charge of the command, Adeoye Oyelola , an assistant commissioner of police, had upon receiving a distress call, drafted men of the Special Anti Robbery Police Squad to the building under attack

Crime and Security also gathered that the state commissioner of police, Ashimiu Argungu, had on receiving the numerous reports of armed robbery cases in Ota, drafted the anti-robbery squad, to the town. The drafting of the policemen, however, paid off, when the squad confronted one of the robbery gangs, terrorising the area. The police source also informed Crime and Security that the police in Sango really celebrated the exploits of the speacial squad

On why the corpses of the slain robbers were taken to some notable personalities in the town, Crime and Security gathered that the policemen only took the corpses to the residence of the robbers or their relatives and victims, who had lost one thing or another to the activities of the gang members.

One of the dead robbers, while on the way to the hospital, confessed to some of the atrocities of the gang. Crime and Security gathered that the man confessed that his gang was responsible for a major robbery operation that led to the death of three people in Oju Ore, Old Palace and Arigbabu, among other robbery operations in the town.

Residents of the town, while speaking with Crime and Security, however, stated that it was not yet uhuru for the police. Some of them though, commended the police team, enjoined them to be on the trail of other robbery gangs operating in the area

Some residents of Arigbabu and Sango Ota roundabout informed Crime and Security that robbers had continued to make lives miserable for them. They, however, added that they had in the last few days enjoyed, a sort of relief following the intervention of policemen. http://www.tribune.com.ng/02072009/tue/crime1.html

It always warms my cockles when i see these dead scum.

Tudór:

It always warms my cockles when i see these dead scum.

u sure say some people no dey miss for NL now?

the idiots will go and enjoy thier stolen money in hell. i cant stand thieves. if i have my way i will tie them to a pole and ask one hausa man to throw arrow at them. i dont know why they think it thier God given right to use what they cant work for. for all of u reading me doing this, you know thuis is your end too. you will all be caught and not see out this july.

Oh pissed. . .