Suspect narrates how he took to robbery after losing N6m capital to sports betting

A robbery suspect, Ego Ike has narrated how he joined a gang that specialize in robbing women of their cars in Abuja after losing N6 million capital to online sports betting.

The gang members, Ike, Obinna Igwe and Adamu Nuha were arrested by operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team, IRT, after robbing a staff of the Federal Internal Revenue Service, FIRS, of a 2016 Toyota Corolla Car on her way home from work.

The suspects, it was learnt, usually took the stolen vehicles to Niger Republic to sell.

They however ran out of luck as one of the gang members was arrested in Niger Republic with the car, with the car impounded. Other gang members were said to have escaped the Nigerien police arrest. They were however tracked down in their hideout in Abuja after the FIRS official reported the robbery to the IRT.

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Narrating how he got involved in robbery, Ike said he joined the gang after he lost a sum of N6m he had invested in clothing business to gambling.

He said: “I was a spare parts dealer at the Ladipo Market, Lagos, but I moved to Abuja in search of greener pastures. When I couldn’t achieve much, I pressured my father to sell his only land in the village and he used the money to send me to Istanbul, Turkey.

“I worked in Istanbul for three years and saved close to N6m which I used to start a clothing business in Nigeria. In 2016, one of my friends introduced me to online sports betting, and I lost all my money. I met one Linus in Abuja and we became friends.  He introduced me to a robbery gang. We stole a Toyota RAV4 from a woman who was driving to her house on Shafar Road, Abuja and we took the car to Kaduna. We sold it to one Mallam Nuhu for N200,000.”

According to Ike, an indigene of Anambra State, his gang also stole a Toyota Matrix from a woman and sold it in Kaduna for N270,000.

Speaking on the the FIRS official’s car, he said: “We took the car that night to Niger Republic, but at the Katsina border, Linus and I came down from the car while Yellow and a man took the car into Niger Republic. Unfortunately, Nigerien police arrested them.  We target women because we don’t use guns and women won’t resist us. We go for Toyota vehicles because we easily find buyers for them.”

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