Crack homicide detectives in Ogun State Police Command have arrested a farmer for stabbing his wife to death over a quarrel.
The farmer, Gbenga Ogunfolabo, who is currently being detained at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) of the Ogun State Police Command headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta, allegedly, stabbed his wife, Bosede, on Tuesday, July 16, 2014 in Ishara, Remo North Local Government Area of Ogun State, during a misunderstanding.
SATURDAY THISDAY reliably gathered that the matter was not reported to the police at Ishara Station by family members in a bid to sweep it under the carpet until Monday, July 21, 2014 when a relation of the deceased resisted pressures and lodged complaints at the station.
A police source hinted that the husband, who is 47 years old, stabbed his wife, Bosede, to death with a broken bottle during a scuffle.
The union is blessed, with eight children, of which two were lost recently to sickness, it was learnt, the husband was often maltreating his wife, who until her death, was a petty trader.
We leart that immediately the incident occurred, the husband’s family members quickly swung into action and mounted pressure on their in-law family members to settle the matter amicably and avoid reporting the incident to the police.
But in defiance of pressure, a female member from the deceased’s family, shunned all entreaties and reported the matter to the police. That was to enable the police unearth the circumstances behind the murder. Acting on the complaint, homicide detectives immediately picked up the farmer.
Muyiwa Adejobi, Ogun State Police Command Public Relations Officer (PRO), confirmed the incident and said the Ogun State Police Commissioner, Mr. Ikemefuna Okoye, quickly ordered that the matter be transferred to the crack detectives attached to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Eleweran, Abeokuta, for further investigation.
According to Adejobi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), “the Ogun State Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr. Ikemefuna Okoye, has directed that the matter be transferred to the SCID, Abeokuta, for further discreet probe, and seized the occasion to advise members of the public to always report cases of this nature or any other crimes to the police so that the command can have records or statistics of crimes committed in the state and also, to allow justice take its cause.
“The CP has also assured the general public of the command’s commitment in making sure that every case is reported to the police and it will be thoroughly investigated, with a view to restoring lost confidence and trust in the minds of the public”.
‘I Posed as DMI Officer and Robbed Innocent People’
This is not the best of time for 48 years-old Sikiru Adeyemi, who once worked as an civilian worker with the Nigerian Army. He considered, himself a smart guy who could always get way with crimes, considering his little romance the military.
The Ogun State-born suspect, who is the leader of a five-man robbery gang that specialises in car-snatching, using military intelligence identity card, could not yet comprehend how he met his waterloo in the hands of the operatives attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja.
It was gathered that Adeyemi’s notoriety began in the early 80’s and he has been involved in crimes ranging from drug peddling, contrabands smuggling, car snatching to armed robbery until he ran out of luck penultimate Wednesday when a crack team of operatives attached to the SARS, Ikeja, swooped on him and other members of his gang.
An informed police source hinted that Adeyemi was apprehended following a tip-off that trhe gang was planning to rob a notable politician in Lagos of N18 million and the officer in-charge of SARS, Abba Kyari, a Superintendent of Police (SP) quickly detailed the crack police team to go after the suspects.
The police source said that Adeyemi got the shock of his life when he led four other members of his gang, identified as Saheed Akeem, Razak Olanrewaju, Jamiu Adeyemi and Dosu Patrick to Ilasamaja Area of Lagos to negotiate with the robbery informant who gave the information to them before they were rounded up by the SARS operatives.
In a chat with the suspects, Adeyemi who is cooling his feet in the detention, admitted to be kingpin of the gang and gave an insight of his escapade as a notorious criminal.
According to him, “I am an interior designer and I was arrested for armed robbery and impersonation. My escapade as an armed robber started after I was working with the Department of Military Intelligence (DMI), Mile 2, Lagos, where I worked as an office assistant. I wasn’t recruited by the army but I did my industrial attachment there. At the end of the programme, I proceeded to a vocational study centre where I learnt interior design and decoration in 1992. Immediately, I left the vocational study I met a friend, a drug baron (name withheld) that was based in United State of America (USA) and he introduced and supplied me illicit drugs which I sold here in Lagos. After selling them, I would send his money back to him.
“That business lasted for over five years and I made so much money from it. I was living like a king, but in 1997, my friend was arrested and my office was ransacked by anti-narcotics agents. I was lucky I wasn’t arrested but most of my properties were confiscated by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) operatives. Few months later, I fell seriously sick. I had liver problem then and I was bed-ridden for close to five years. In 2012, I recovered and I went out to look for work in order to eke out a living. In the process, I met a soldier, James Imada, who is resident at Ikeja Cantonment, and we talked about how we could use his influence as a soldier to arrest, harass trucks carrying goods on high ways and collect money from drivers. He gave me a Defence Intelligence operative’s identity card with the rank of a sergeant and we began operations. Whenever we went out for operations,we were always on the look out for trucks carrying cement Whenever we intercepted any I would identify myself to be an agent of the DMI that I have information that the goods onboard were stolen. After several pleas and if such a truck driver was willing to co-operate, we would ask him to settle us so that we did not waste his time and he would be let off the hook. I did this until 2011 when Imada was transferred to Borno State in the wake of the fight against Boko Haram insurgents. I can’t say if he is still alive or not, because I have not heard from him ever since. My problem started on a particular day, I went to Mile 2 and intercepted a truck carrying goods, but before I could collect money from the truck driver, some policemen from Festac Police Station arrested me and charged me to court for impersonation. I was released on bail and the case was later struck out by a Magistrate for want of evidence.
“Also, in 2012, I met a dismissed police officer at Campus Square at Lagos Island and we discussed at length on our sad experiences and he told me that we could work as a team in car-snatching. He told me that all we needed to do was to show our identity card to a car owner and tell him that the car is a stolen car. We said we would claim that the DMI and police had been searching for the car and if the owner wanted to resist arrest we would point a gun at him, thereby forcing him out of his car before zooming off with the car.
“We worked, according, to our plans and we stole several cars, using this method and we were disposing of them to our would-be buyer, one Henry. In the process, the illicit business was booming and resorted to recruit more helping hands.
“But the last straw that broke the camel’s back was last month when one of my boys called me that he has information that a National of Assembly (N/A) member would me coming home with N18 million and we planned to rob him of the money. I asked him to fix a meeting between him and the informant and he obliged. To my utter dismay, I didn’t know he had set a booby trap for us. When I got to the place the police arrested me and my boys.”
However, Ngozi Braide, Lagos State Police Command spokesperson, could not be reached to confirm the incident, as her mobile set was ringing, without being answered.
Fake Army Captain in Trouble for Wanting to Buy Guns from DPO
Looking calm and unruffled, as he walked into an office of an Investigating Police Officer (IPO), Benjami Ifada, is currently a guest of crack detectives attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command headquarters, Ikeja, Lagos, for two crimes of approaching and attempting to buy guns from an armourer of a Divisional Police Station in Lagos and also, for impersonating an Army captain.
The 54-year-old suspect, who claims to be a bosom friend of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in-charge of Idimu Station, was penultimate Thursday arrested by plain-clothed detectives detailed to track him down at the point of taking possession of the guns he had bargained to buy from the armourer before his subsequent transfer to the SARS operatives for further probe.
According to a police source, the Edo State-born suspect, it was learnt, befriended virtually all the DPOs in Lagos, having introduced himself and also, impersonated an Army Captain to dupe hapless and innocent Lagosians, a crime he admitted committing during an encounter with our Correspondent.
It was gathered that Ben, as he is fondly called, had been a regular caller to the office of the Idimu DPO, a Superintendent of Police (SP), but last week Thursday he seized an opportunity offered by his visit to the DPO to ask after the armourer in-charge of the station (name withheld).
As if his mission was unaccomplished, Ben approached the armourer for the purchase of an AK-47 rifle from the station’s armoury, a mere discussion regarded as a joke and the latter dismissed with a wave of hands.
Still not satisfied with the armourer’s response, it was further learnt, the 54-year-old suspect, sent a short-message-service (sms) to the armourer, asking how much it would cost him to get an AK-47 rifle from the available weapons in his care as an armourer of the station.
At that stage, it dawned on the armourer that the suspect was in for a serious trouble.
“The armourer now replied the sms and promised to get back to the suspect in the next 30 minutes time to enable him take stock of the weapons in his care.”
“The armourer cashed in on that available opportunity of 30 minutes to get back to him and went straight to his boss, the DPO and narrated his encounter, including the sms, with the estranged friend of the DPO. The DPO couldn’t believe his ears until the armourer showed him the sms the suspect sent, requesting for buying the AK-47 rifle.
“As a result, the DPO asked the armourer to play along with the suspect, while he detailed some plain-clothed policemen to be on alert and subsequently, effect his arrest whenever he had agreed to come to the station for the gun,” he narrated. To underscore his seriousness, it was further gathered, had asked the armourer during a telephone conversation whether the place he had kept the gun was safe or not.
But upon entering the armourer’s office, the armourer apologised to him that the brand of the gun, an AK-47 rifle, he was looking for, was not available in the armoury, except if he could settle for other calibre of weapons.
“Instead, he chose two pistols (a revolver and a Beretta), each at a cost of N150, 000, the two totalling N300, 000. He paid N20, 000 as an initial payment, promising to offset the remaining balance very soon.
He told that armourer that one Mr Kalu, who is based in Egbeda and who needed the guns, had already issued a cheque of N300, 000 in his name for cashment across a bank counter.
“Also, he reminded the armourer to get his heart-desire brand of AK-47 rifle, promising to come back soon”, offered the police source.
However, the armourer, having handed over the two guns to the suspect, quickly beckoned at the plain-clothed policemen who had laid ambush at the corridor of the station, and accosted him and identified themselves, as he made to step out. The policemen told him they were under instructions of the DPO to bring him to his office for a chat”, said the Sergeant.
SATURDAY THIS DAY gathered that the suspect resisted being taking to the station, insisting that he did not want the DPO to see him, but the policemen urged him to respect himself.
“He resisted seeing the DPO, but we dragged him forcibly to the office
of the DPO, with the handbag, containing the two pistols he had just
bought from the armourer.
“When he saw the DPO face-to-face he began to beg for forgiveness, as
his friend and admitted to the crime.
He claimed it was one Mr Kalu, who resides at Egbeda, assigned him
with the task of buying the guns on his behalf. The DPO, therefore,
told him that the friendship between them had ceased. The DPO asked an
officer to take his statement before he was subsequently handed over
to the SARS operatives at Ikeja”, hinted an officer at Idimu Station.
In a chat with the suspect, who is cooling feet in the detention of
the SARS confessed thus:
“I made an Army captain Identity Card (ID) myself. I love to be an
Army Captain. People around respect me a lot whenever I identified
myself as an Army Captain and it made me to have my ways easily
wherever I go. The first time I met the Idimu Station DPO I introduced
myself to him as an Army Captain”.
On how he met Mr Kalu: “I came to across Mr Kalu a few months ago.
Since my contact with him, he had helped me on many occasions and most
especially, he had helped in paying my house tenancy. The first time
he gave me N50, 000 and subsequently, N100, 000. My contact with Mr
Kalu began on a particular day I was passing by along Gowon Estate,
Ipaja, Lagos. There was a man I accosted along my way and who told me
Mr kalu was the person building an hotel inside the Gowon Estate. I
made an enquiry to see him and I succeeded in meeting him. I told him
that I could erect an electric fence wire and also, install a Close
Circuit Television (CCTV). He obliged me and took me to his another
home in Lekki area. During our discussion, he asked if I am a Christian so that he could sow a seed into my life and I told him that, I am. On that day, he gave me N50, 000 cash.
When I got home I told my wife and she was happy. My wife called him and thanked him for his kindness. From that amount, I paid my 10
percent tithe in my Church.
“Mr Kalu was the person who asked me to buy the guns on his behalf. I
am a friend to virtually all the DPOs in Lagos and they use to give me
warmth welcome whenever I pay visits to them. I introduced myself to
them as an Army captain and they give me that honour and respect.
“I’m very sorry for what had happened”.
When his home was searched, assorted charms and other incriminating
documents were found.
Ngozi Braide, Lagos State Police Command spokesperson, was not
available to confirm the incident, as her mobile line kept ringing,
without picking.
But the police source at the SARS hinted that the suspect would be
arraigned in court as soon as investigation is completed on the
matter.
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