We did it to feed our families- suspects

By Evelyn Usman

They drove back home in their separate  cars, on April 1, 2019, from church, at  about 9pm,   with the woman ahead and her   husband behind. Little did they envisage that danger lurked ahead.

The first move that signaled a nightmarish scenario , occurred after a silver coloured Toyota Corrolla veered off its lane and drove behind the woman’s Toyota   Sequoia .

gunmen

Then, all of a sudden, like a Hollywood   action movie, the car, intercepted the woman’s,   at Orchid road, by Abraham Adesanya, with two armed huge   men jumping out   of it. This caused   other motorists to hurriedly leave the place.

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One of invaders   ordered the   fear stricken woman (names withheld) to sit at the passenger’s seat, while he took over the steering, with his partner behind.

At that point, her perplexed husband as gathered,   put up an act of bravery by chasing his wife’s abductors. In the process, he rammed into his wife’s   vehicle, pinning it to the median. This forced the two strangers to scurry out of the vehicle.

While one o f them managed to escape, the other, later identified as Simon Bisong,   was not , as he was arrested by a team of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad , SARS that was   alerted by the alarm raised.

His confessional statement led to the arrest of his alleged partners in crime:   Utomi Lucky, 44 and Anayo Odiaka.

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During preliminary investigation, it was discovered that the gang’s operational vehicle   plate number EKY 495, was originally used for Uber.   However, it   has two other plate numbers which were   replaced with the original, whenever it was   going for operation.

In an interview with Crime Guard, the 40-year-old father of four, Bisong, said his gang’s intention was not to abduct the woman but to dispossess her of her belongings.

He said, “ We only wanted to collect cash and other valuables from her. We did not know that her husband was driving behind.   Anayo owns the vehicle we used.   We did it because we were hungry.

“This is my first time of doing this. I was unlucky to have been caught because it was dark and I did not know my way around there”.

On his part, Lucky, said, “ I was doing interlocking but there has been no job for a long time and my children are hungry.   During the operation, I carried a cutlass but Tony gave me a gun to scare the woman. He was also the one that gave us the plate numbers’.

But the third suspect, Odiaka, the Uber driver, claimed he never took part in the planning. He stated that he was only told to take the gang to the operation ground and leave immediately they alighted from the vehicle.

Hear him, “ Tony(fleeing member) is my regular customer. He called me to meet him at his hotel and gave me the plate numbers. He told me all I needed to do was to block any car he instructed me to   and that at the end, he would give me my share.   That was exactly what I did when they pointed the   Toyota Sequoia.   As instructed, I   drove   off immediately   they alighted.

Arrested

“ After one week, Lucky called me that a Reverend was at his place and would like to pray for me. On my way to his place, my vehicle developed a fault.   I stopped to   buy fried potato from a bean cake seller , while I waited for a mechanic to come and effect the repairs on my car.

“I called Lucky to tell him to meet me   where I was. I had barely started eating when   a hand grabbed my neck from behind.   As I turned to reprimand the person, I discovered they were SARS men”.

Spokesman for the Lagos State Police Command Elkana Bala, said the suspects would be charged to court, adding that efforts were still on to arrest their fleeing members.