Posted by By Juliana Francis on
The saying that once bitten, twice shy, apparently did not hold water for two suspected robbers, who went back to a life of crime after a court had told them to, " go and sin no more!" One of them said he had to do it to please his wife.
The saying that once bitten, twice shy, apparently did not hold water for two suspected robbers, who went back to a life of crime after a court had told them to, " go and sin no more!" One of them said he had to do it to please his wife.
Detectives from the Pedro police station last Wednesday smashed the eight-man-gang along the Oworonshoki end of Third Mainland Bridge after they had robbed passengers they picked in the Ojodu Berger area.
Daily Sun gathered that detectives at the Pedro Division, in response to a distress call, raced to the scene and met an abandoned commercial bus marked XE669MUX with restive occupants. They also saw an excited crowd pointing in the direction of a bush near the bridge where the robbers had fled.
In concert with members of the public, the police were said to have entered the area but were halted by a hail of bullets. Detectives had also fired in the direction of the shots, unwittingly nailing three of the men later identified as Abraham Ode 35, Michael Daudu, 34 and Rasheedi Lawal 29. Others were said to have escaped. Immediately the crowd sighted the wounded suspects, they pounced on them. The three men would have been sent to their early graves but for the intervention of the police.
Daily Sun further gathered that the police later gave the occupants, who had been robbed of all valuables, transport fares back home.
The suspects, however, claimed that they had never used guns for operations before. They explained that all they needed to do was to threaten the passengers by claiming to be agents of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in search of hard drugs and the victims would give up their valuables.
Ode is a graduate of sociology. It was not close to a month after he was released from prison for receiving stolen items when he had gone back to his life of crime. Incidentally, it was also the Anti-robbery team of Pedro Division that arrested him the first time and charged him to court.
According to Ode, he had no choice but to go back to crime. He said: " The problem was still there waiting for me. Though I have no excuse for going into crime, but I will still say that the prevalent economic situation pushed me to the walls."
He claimed to have returned from prison to discover that his wife and two children had no accommodation. He took them to his friend's place at Shasha but knew it was only a matter of time before the man would ask them to leave. Ode said he had then decided to join another gang of commercial bus robbers to raise the money for accommodation and take care of his young family. He said: " Let my wife know that I love her and that I did this for them."
Daudu, who said he had a lovely woman and a nine-year-old daughter, said he went into robbery because he wanted to meet up with his mates. He also said that as the first born in a family of eight, he had to cater to his younger ones. Daudu went into crime in 2000 and was arrested by Pedro Division Anti-robbery team in 2002. His case was later transferred to the Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID) Alagbon, from there he was taken to court but perhaps fate wanted to give him a second chance and his case was struck off. Rather than go home and repent, Daudu had gone back to crime. He said: " I know that what I was doing is bad. I get angry with myself sometimes, but its like I can't help myself. I keep seeing myself going back to crime!"
Lawal joined the gang because he wanted to raise money to travel to Canada. He had been to Holland twice but had also been deported twice. " Holland is a police country. They don't like blacks." He was deported a second time because he dared to tell his girlfriend in Holland, that he would not marry her, neither will he continue to be used as her stud. He said: "She treats me like I am her servant. I did all those things because I wanted to get my stay but later as an African man, I couldn't take it. She then set me up!" He, however, refused to tell Daily Sun how he was set up. To get money for his Holland first trip, Lawal sold his barber's shop.
Even with a young wife and a two-year-old baby, Lawal was determined to leave Nigeria. He said: " This robbery is not my fault! I was trying to make up and leave this country. My mind don comot for Naija!" Browsing through internet, he applied to the Canadian embassy in Accra, Ghana for a visa. Luck smiled on him, when he received a mail to come and collect his visa. He said he knew he needed N80, 000 for the Visa and N160, 000 for ticket, so he decided to rob and raise the money.