A group of car snatchers were recently arrested in the Saki area of Oyo state recently, and one of the suspects claims it's God's will for him to become a robber.
According to reports from The Nation, a notorious robber who was recently arrested in Saki, Oyo state, following a failed car snatching operation, has blamed God for his situation.
The suspect identified as Hussein Mohammed, reportedly told policemen and newsmen that it was God's will for him to be a robber because he created good and evil, and he had previously been sent to prison for committing a similar crime.
The suspects with the car they stole from their victim
Mohammed who had only come out from prison barely two months before his recent arrest, was paraded alongside Salawu Nurudeen, Oriowo Ayo, Ahmadu Garuba and Ogunbiyi Kola a.k.a. Timmy who are also ex-convicts.
According to the Oyo state police commissioner Mr Sam Adegbuyi, they were all arrested in November 2016 on armed robbery charges.
Speaking on his experience with the robbers, the victim identified as Alhaji Badmus, said:
“The armed robbers entered my compound in Saki on November 21, 2016 at about 7.45p.m., and held my family members hostage. As I was returning home at about 9.50p.m., I called my wife and daughter, unknown to me that they had been held hostage, though they allowed them to use their phones so that I would not suspect anything.
As I drove in, two of the armed robbers (pointed at them among the suspects) jumped out, put a gun at my chest and asked me to cooperate with them. As I looked at them, wondering what was happening, one of them said ‘continue looking at our faces; we have been told that you are very stubborn,’ warning me of the consequences of the action I might be thinking of taking as my wife and other children were taken hostage inside the house.
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I surrendered to them and as we entered into my residence, one of them gave me a slap on the neck. They demanded for gold, money, receipt to my plasma TV and wristwatches I bought from Makkah, Saudi Arabia, when I went on holy pilgrimage.
They asked me to lie down and started ransacking my house. When they were through, they locked me up in a room with my family members and left. They went with six phones, my daughter’s laptop, clothings, my wife’s gold jewellery and my car."
A distress call was placed to the police at the Ogbomoso/Oyo which led to the arrest of the suspects. Among the things recovered from them were an English-made pistol, six live ammunitions, a Toyota Corolla car belonging to Alhaji Badmus, a Microsoft cell phone and two wristwatches.
One of the suspects identified as Nurudeen, said:
“It is true we went to rob. I did not enter the victim’s house with other gang members; I stayed outside. His car was handed over to me after the operation. I met Timmy and Mohammed a.k.a Goodluck in Ilesa prison.
When we got talking, I told them I needed a vehicle and they promised to work with me after leaving the prison to achieve my desire. I was a driver before I went to prison for fighting. I was arrested with the car we collected from our victim on the same day at Sabe on Saki-Iseyin Road.”
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Mohammed who was in prison from 2012-2016 for a similar incident, said:
“I went to prison because the police were looking for my friends whom they suspected of committing armed robbery. I believe it is God’s will that I graduated to being an armed robber in the prison. There is nothing that happens without God’s knowledge. He is the one that created good and evil.
I knew Timmy in a hemp joint at Ojoo area of Ibadan. A man, an Alhaji who said he was a Tokunbo dealer at Ago Are told us he needed vehicles and gave us a gun to grab vehicles for him. A guy we met in the prison linked us with Alhaji. I spent three years in prison and came out in July 2016. This is the first time I would be working for Alhaji."
The other suspect Timmy, blamed the police for pushing him into armed robbery. He said:
“I will blame the police for charging me to court over a fight in which I stabbed someone with a bottle. I knew it was not a good deed, but it was anger that pushed me into the act. It was when I went to prison that I became connected with armed robbers.
In the prison, I connected with Nurudeen and one Ojo who linked us with Alhaji in Ago Are town. I came out of prison in August 2016. I was the one keeping the gun that was given to us by Alhaji.”
The suspects have been remanded in Oyo prisons, and their case has been adjourned till April 22.