Operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, have arrested three of the nine suspected armed robbers, who invaded Ibeshe beach at Lekki Phase 1, Lagos last December. The incident happened on Boxing Day.
The officers, who reportedly responded to distress calls and arrested the three, recovered three locally made pistols and 12 cartridges from them.
The suspects, Chukwuemeka Ikpeazu of Babasha Street, Shibiri, Tajudeen Afeez of Kemo Street, Ojo and Fatai Adeokun of Osunba Street, Oto-Awori Ojo, all resident in the state, had also allegedly robbed the occupant of Molusi Street in Surulere, Lagos Mainland, The Nation reports.
According to one of the suspects, Ikpeazu, “I am not the gang leader, the leader is Wasiu and he escaped with five others. He was the one that gave me this gun to follow them to rob at the beach.
“We robbed people in Ibeche beach and collected their phones and I was given one phone. We also robbed at Badagry side and my share was N30, 000 cash. We robbed only the people drinking and having fun in the beach.
Adeokun said he was drinking in a bar at the beach when people pointed to him that he was one of the robbers “because they saw me in the picture they snapped.”
“The truth is that two people got drowned in the river and when one of the bodies was brought out, I went there to take a look and I was among those they snapped,” he said.
Afeez, a cobbler, said: “I am not an armed robber. People in the Beach snapped me and told police that I was one of the robbers.”
On why they were arrested, he said some robbers came to the beach, fired gun and robbed people, saying he and Afeez were not among them.
When Chukwuemeka was asked whether he knows them, he said: “I don’t know them. They are not one of us. One of the people in the crowd saw their pictures in what they snapped and suspected them. Those who robbed with me have escaped. These two are innocent.”
According to SARS, the suspects specialised in robbing bars and bar beaches and dispossessing people of their phones, jewelries, cash and handbags.
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