PHOTO- 50-year-old woman, 4 others arrested for armed robbery in Lagos

The end of the road has come for a group of car thieves in Lagos as they have finally been apprehended by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
The gang had allegedly been terrorizing residents of Ikeja and environs in the state for a long time.
Sadiq Olayibi, Tolani Adeyinka, Adeleke Teslim and Olayemi Akiloye, were finally arrested when SARS operatives snatched them up from various areas of the state.

Olabiyi reportedlydescribed himself as a kid robber who graduated to a full blown car snatcher. Also arrested was a 50-year-old woman, Lawal Ireti, who was described as the gang’s informant.
Police sources said Ireti provided other jobs for the gang when they were not snatching cars.
According to the sources, the woman suspect provided information to the gang that led to the robbery of the N8 million from a micro finance bank in Ogba area of Ikeja.
“The gang specialized in car snatching and they terrorized Ikeja and environs for a long time. They operated during the weekends and their targets were exotic cars. Their activities gave the police, residents and night crawlers in Ikeja sleepless nights and the state Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, in his bid to stem the gang’s operation, ordered the officer in charge of SARS, SP, Abba Kyari, to trail and apprehend the bandits.
Kyari, who swiftly swung into action, sent undercover operatives into streets to shop for stolen vehicles. Their efforts paid off when they stumbled on one of the gang members who attempted to sell a stolen Toyota Camry to the undercover operatives. He was arrested and his arrest pave the way for the arrest of other members of the gang including Ireti the 50-year-old woman”, one of the sources told newsmen.
The source added that members of the gang got wind of the arrest of their member and they made effort to flee the country. “We arrested Tolani Adeyinka, at the South Africa Embassy, after he had secured a visa to flee the country. Sadiq Olabiyi was picked up at Ajah area of the state, he has also applied for a visa to tavel to Egypt. Adeleke Teslim and Olayemi Akiloye were picked separately at Ojo and Okokomaiko areas of the state,” the source narrated.
Meanwhile, when reporters interviewed the suspects at Lagos State Command Headquarters, Ikeja, they confessed to the crime, but Olabiyi blamed his involvement in crime to lack of proper training. The 27 year-old man said,
“I am the first child of my parents. My father did not have a good job, which made us very poor. I was born in Ketu. As a young boy, I used to go to the market at Mile 12 to assist some people selling stolen goats. I usually helped them to offload the goats from their vehicles and, from there, I learnt how to drive.
When I graduated from secondary school, I joined the business full time. I stole several goats, I would travel to some south western states to steal goats. While I was doing that, I met Tolani Adeyinka. He and Adeleke Teslim and one other had started snatching cars then. They knew I was a good driver; so they asked me to join them. We stole a lot of cars together and we operated mostly in Ikeja, Ogba and Agege areas