A member of a four-man robbery gang, Offor Joseph, arrested recently by men of the Lagos state police command, has told the police that he gave his mother N50,000 from his share of the N900,000 he made from his first operation as an armed robber.
Offor, who was arrested alongside Chinedu Ogu, a member of his gang after robbing a lebanese man, said they have informants that go to banks to monitor individuals who go to withdraw large sum. The informant then calls then to inform them of such customers.
“This is my third robbery operation. In the first operation, we made N900,000 and I got N200,000 as my share. I used the first money I made to take care of some pressing family issues and gave my mother N50,000; sister N15,000.
We received information that a Lebanese man had gone to one of the new generation banks in Satellite town to withdraw a huge sum of money. We have an informant, who pretends to be carrying out transaction in the bank, but whose job is to monitor individuals that withdraw large sums. I think it is insider’s connection. The gang leader has cashiers and others, who give him information. I don’t know the arrangement between him and the informant. All I know is that the information is always correct.
Our robbery gang is made up of four men. I bought the revolver gun from a friend in Bayelsa State. He usually goes to the militant camp in the creeks where he brings guns which he sells. He sold it to me for N35,000. The second operation was unsuccessful, as the white man we wanted to rob didn’t go home straight. He was driving round Lagos and we were following him, but couldn’t pin him down. He would enter one club after another until the fuel of our Okada got finished and we couldn’t locate him again. That day, we resolved that we should not be robbing only white people. But our informant in the bank will always discourage us, saying Nigerians don’t withdraw large sums.”
Narrating how they were caught by the police, Offor said
”On Monday June 25th, our informant told us a Lebanese man made huge withdrawal and gave us the description. We trailed the victim to his house in Satellite Town. As he was opening his gate, we attacked him with the gun and he handed the money over to us. Unfortunately, trouble started on our way home when Sergeant Momoh Olachene and a team of policemen on patrol chased us till we were arrested. We don’t know how the Police knew we were coming from a robbery operation. We would have shot the Lebanese man if he had resisted, because we were desperate to get money. I needed money to buy Keke Marwa (tricycle), while my partner, Chinedu, wanted to invest in commercial motorcycle Okada.”
The second suspect, Chinedu Ogu “I haven’t made anything from the operations. The first time they gave me only N40,000. They usually take the lion share and give me peanuts. I am married with three kids. My wife doesn’t know that I am into robbery.”
A pistol, four live ammunition, bag containing N350,000, ATM cards and cheques were recovered from them. The police say Offor and Chindeu would be charged to court soon.
