The Lagos state Police Command says it has arrested two out of the five men suspected to be robbers who disguised as patients to rob a private hospital in Shibiri, Ajangbadi area of the state.
The two suspects – Babatunde Bamidele and Idowu Balogun were taken to the Ajangbadi Police Division while three others escaped, the Punch gathered.
Confirming the arrest, the Commissioner of Police, CP, in the state, Fatai Owoseni, said efforts were on to apprehend the fleeing members of the gang.
The CP said the robbers, who posed as patients and requested to see the doctor, carted away valuables during the robbery incident which occurred on Tuesday at about 10pm.
According to reports, Bamidele and Balogun were positioned at the hospital’s gates, while one Yusuf and Ahmed, said to be among those at large, entered the doctor’s office, feigning to be patients who needed medical attention.
They eventually robbed the doctor of money and phones, which they passed to the duo at the gate.
However, in the course of the robbery, a distress call was reportedly put across by an unidentified patient to the police, and the operatives stormed the scene, arresting Bamidele and Balogun.
According to the CP, the suspects would be charged to court after investigations were concluded.
He said, “The gang is based in the Ajangbadi area. They pretend to be patients and they attack hospitals.”
Owoseni, however, did not disclose the name of the hospital (to protect it from reprisals).
Speaking further, the CP said, “One of them held his stomach when they came into that hospital, and when they were asked to come in, they began to rob the patients. Investigation is ongoing on their matter.
“A similar group pretends to be motorcycle passengers and when the rider picks them, they spray him some substance, and he becomes unconscious. They then steal the motorcycles . “Some of them have been arrested as well,” the CP noted.
Confessing to the crime, Balogun, 29, who hails from Ajase, Kwara State, said, “I did not know Tunde (Bamidele) before Tuesday. He and I were stationed at the hospital gate.
“It was Yusuf who invited me to come to the hospital to rob. What I usually do is ‘sit and fire’. That means, I steal money from people’s pockets inside commercial buses.
“They said they had a job to do and they took me along. That was the first time I would go to that hospital. I was going to run away when the police arrested me.”
On his part, the second suspect, Bamidele, 32, said it was Ahmed who invited him for the job.
According to him, he was given the doctor’s phones to keep during the operation; he, however, denied that he entered the hospital as a patient.
Bamidele said, “I do car battery charging and rewiring on the Lagos Island. My father is a chief on the Lagos Island area. There is a cut on my stomach.
“I sustained it when I fell off from a motorcycle three weeks ago. That was the cut the policemen saw and said I came to the hospital as a patient.
“It was a friend, Ahmed, who invited me for this job on Tuesday. I was at a drinking joint when he came and persuaded me to join them.
“Ahmed is a pickpocket, I will not lie. We don’t have any gun. He had asked me to wait at the hospital gate that evening. The other suspect and I were at the gate. We did not see the doctor who was robbed.
“When the policemen came, they whisked me and the man away in a van, but Ahmed and others escaped. I did not know whether they disguised as patients inside the doctor’s office or not.
“I was not given any money,” the suspect who hails from Lagos Island added.
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