I joined robbery gang to raise N20, 000 for my daughter’s school fee-suspect

    The  suspects 

  

By Emmanuel Udom

A robbery suspect, Babatunde Makinde has lamented how he was lured to a robbery gang, while desperately trying to source for N20, 000 to pay his daughters school fee.

Makinde, an indigene of Osun state told our correspondent that late last month, he met one Dayo, while drinking at a beer parlour in Somolu area of Lagos.

According to him,  the said Dayo, who is now at large offered to pay for a bottle of beer he was drinking and even went ahead to give him N5,000 when he was leaving the place.

This appear to be the beginning of  trouble for him as he confessed that  first week of September, this year, he was desperately looking for N20,000 to pay for the daughters school fee when he remembered Dayo and contacted him  for assistance.

Amidst sobbing, while blaming the devil for the act, Makinde, a married man with three children further confessed that he was brainwashed by Dayo to join a car snatching syndicate operating in the area.  

His words: Reluctantly, I joined the gang and the very first operation we had, I was among the two members of the gang arrested, while Dayo escaped with bullet wounds.

The build-up to this messy stage for the gang members, Saturday Independent gathered occurred September 22, this year when Makinde and one Faruk Lawal, his-comrade-in-crime snatched a Salon car marked: NH 293AAA around somolu area of Lagos.

Based on a tip-off, Abba Kyari, a Superintendent of police and officer-in-charge of Lagos state anti-robbery squad (SARS) tracked the suspects to Daleko in Mushin, where they were eventually intercepted after a bloody cross-fire.

One double barrel pistol, two single barrel pistols, and 28 live cartridges were some of the items recovered by SARS police detectives from the robbers.