LAGOS: Cops nab 2 robbers who use dummy gun to rob victims

Two robbers identified as Steven Aleke, 22, and Oseni Umadi, 26, who both resorted to constructing a dummy gun, using woods and cello tape which they used to rob their victims after they couldn’t afford a real gun have both been arrested.

According to detectives attached to Orile Agege Police Station, the pair usually carry out their operations at Mowe/Ibafo area of Ogun State using the dummy gun to disposess their victims.

One of the suspects, Aleke who was arrested by soldiers while attempting to rob a victim said his friend Umadi introduced him to robbery.

He said; “My friend Umadi is my boss because he introduced me into this robbery business. Yes, he introduced me into robbery on September 15. It was Umadi that suggested that we should buy cello tape and wood, to use in constructing a dummy gun. After constructing the dummy gun, we used it to rob people. They didn’t know it was a dummy gun. After our first operation, I got two phones and N14, 700 as my share from the operation.

“The following day, which was September 26, we went for another robbery operation. Unfortunately, soldiers arrested me, but other members of the gang escaped. My sister broke down and wept after I was arrested. She didn’t know I had gone into robbery.”

Aleke also revealed that it was after he was arrested and moved to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command, that he revealed the hideout of his other gang members.

“After I was transferred from where the robbery took place to SARS office, I told police the hideout of other members. They were later arrested.”

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However, Umadi said it was his friend Aleke that introduced him into robbery and not the other way round as earlier stated.

Umadi said; “My friend, Aleke introduced me to this business of using wood and cello tape to construct a dummy gun, which we used to rob people.”

He said he had been noticing that Aleke had been living a lavish life and decided to ask his friend to introduce him to the business he makes bread and butter from.

“I told him that I wanted to be like him. He promised to take me to a place, where he would introduce me to his kind of business. He said that he noticed that I needed a job. One fateful day, he took me out and when we got there, he said that I would be going for my first robbery experience. After the first and second robbery operations, I told him I was no longer interested in robbery. We started quarreling until he had to move out of our community,” Umadi recounted.

The suspect who revealed that he has only N15, 000 to show for all the robberies he had been involved in said he later heard that Aleke had been arrested along with his landlord and some neighbours.

Umadi said it was when he went to the police station to clear his name that he was implicated; “I went to the station to clear my name. On getting there, Aleke pointed at me; he deliberately implicated me. He told police that I was one of the members of the robbery gang. He implicated me, knowing full well that I had hands off robbery some days ago before his arrest. My regret is that, I have only N15, 000 to show for all the robberies.”

 

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