Joy Anyim
A five-man trans-border car-snatching syndicate that had allegedly snatched a Toyota Corolla Sports car from a Taxify driver, in Lekki, in February, and sold it for N250, 000 at Republic of Benin, has been arrested by the operatives of the Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command.
The suspects, Michael Sosa, 27, Nelson Benson, 24, Idowu Dauda, 30, Owolabi Shobayo (a.k.a Daju pa), 29 and Biliaminu Abu ( a.k.a Gengen), 43, were all arrested in Ijoko and Otta, Ogun State, last week.
Investigation revealed that Sosa, in company of Dosumu, now at large had, sometime in February, 2019, converged in Elegushi Beach, Lekki where they both hatched the plan to hijack a Taxify cab and moved it to Ogun State and for sale.
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Sosa, a suspected internet fraudster had, after waiting till 10:00p.m, ordered a Taxify ride from Agungi Estate to Lagos Island. In the car with him were Dosumu and one Samuel, also at large.
According to Sosa, “At Abraham Adesanya Estate, Lekki, I told the driver I wanted to ease myself.
“We alighted and while I pretended to be urinating, Dosumu poured dried pepper he was keeping into a bottle of water he bought in traffic. He allowed the substance to dissolve well.
“We got back into the car. The Taxify driver was about to start the car when Dosumu poured the mixture on the driver’s head.
“Spontaneously, he screamed and jumped out of the car. He started shouting for help. I got on his seat and drove the car away from the scene.
“I drove to the road leading to Alpha Beach where we stopped for some hours because we suspected we were being followed.
“At about 4:00 a.m, on Sunday, I proceeded to Agege via Agidingbi, dropping Dosumu in Omole.
“I picked Benson at Agege Stadium. Benson was to direct us through the routes that prevent us from encountering the police to Ijoko.”
He explained further, “ At Ijoko, I took the car to Alfa Mouka’s house. He was my spiritualist. I told him the car was stolen. It was at this point we began to source for buyers.
“I was introduced to Shobayo and Abu. The two of them, as I got to know later, were dreaded cultists and notorious criminals in the area.
“Because I was new in the area, I didn’t know them quite well. The area was supposed to be a hideout for my family and I. They took the car from me, by this time, they were already scheming and getting difficult to understand. I told them I wanted to sell the car for N300,000, but I could not do much as they were in charge.
Explaining his role, Shobayo said, “ Dauda was the one who drove the car to my house in Ijoko. He told me that it belonged to his brother. I discovered that the car had no papers. This made it difficult to sell.
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“We got a dealer who asked us to bring it to the Republic of Benin. Abu and I took it across the Nigeria broader at about 11:00p.m. after changing the number plate”.
He added, “We sold the Toyota Corolla Sport for N250,000. We would have sold it better than that but for the papers that were not available. I took N190,000 of the money. I gave N60,000 to Abu, while I gave N40,000 to Daudu to give Sosa.
“Although, I got to know that it was N30,000 that got to him. Our link to Benin got N13,000. That was how we shared the money.”
Speaking on the development, Commissioner of Police Zubairu Muazu, stated that criminals who think they could escape with nefarious activities perpetrated in Lagos might need to have a rethink as the command is at alert and would haunt down any criminal in any part of the country.
It was learnt that the suspects have been transferred to Special Anti-Robbery Squad for further investigations.
