By Ifeanyi Okolie

The controversy surrounding the disappearance of a 34-year-old suspect, Joseph Jack, from police custody in Lagos State, has taken a new twist, as Crime Alert has uncovered that he was gunned down during a police operation.

Sources disclosed that Jack, an alleged member of a notorious armed robbery gang that specialized in using military uniforms and accessories  to terrorize members of the public was arrested in September 2013 after dispossessing a man at gun point, of his tricycle in Yaba area of Lagos.

*Joseph Jack in a fake uniform

The owner of the tricycle, Obiora Offor, was said to have spotted Jack, four months after the robbery, in a crowd, in a military uniform at Ojodu Berger, arguing with a motorist. He confronted him but got a beating of his life, for accusing a military personnel of armed robbery.

The police at Ojodu were alerted and Jack was arrested.  During interrogation it was discovered that Jack was fake and was transferred to Special Anti-Robbery oplSquad, SARS, for proper profiling and  investigation.

While at SARS, Crime Alert gathered that, its operatives uncovered that Jack had three pending cases of armed robbery, extortion, intimidation and harassment with the Squad.  They also discovered that the Army at 9 Brigade Ikeja, had written a letter to the Commissioner of Police Lagos, asking that Jack be prosecuted for armed robbery, after he was arrested by a team of army personnel on patrol in Ogba area of Lagos for attempting to dispossess a middle-aged man identified as Rufus Akinrinwale of the sum of N2 million.

The letter dated January 12, 2012, stated in part, “In course of our investigation, it was discovered that the suspect is a civilian who specialized in impersonating as a soldier and committed crimes under this guise including robbery. He has been arrested and handed over to the Nigeria Police Force for the same offences on several occasions in the past. Assorted military items were recovered from him including army identity card.”

Meanwhile, Crime Alert further gathered that, while Jack was still undergoing interrogation and SARS operatives were making effort to track down members of his gang, a gang of armed robbers clad in military uniforms attacked a branch of Access Bank at Ayobo area of Lagos and attempted to break into the Automated Teller Machine, ATM, killing three policemen including an Assistant Superintendent of Police, Longus Amuzie. They carted away their rifles, as they  responded  to a distress call from the bank.

After that incident, CCTV footage of the operation was showed to Jack and he identified one Eyo and confidence, who he said were the leaders of his gang and four others.    An operative who spoke with Crime Alert on the condition of anonymity said, “The moment Jack identified the Ayobo bank robbers as members of his gang, we knew we’ve gotten our lead on the bandits that killed our colleagues. We immediately asked him to place a call to Eyo and tell him that he has been away treating an ailment and he is back, but very broke.

Eyo expressed surprise hearing from Jack and he asked him to team up with him and two others at Illasamaja, where he said he has an operation involving N10 million.  We took Jack to the spot at Ilasamja, where they were supposed to meet and the moment Eyo sighted us he attempted to escape by shooting at us but he and three others were  gunned down.  We recovered an AK 47 rifle and 11 fully loaded AK 47 magazines from a bag he was carrying.  A Nigeria Army Identity card, with No. 93 NA/968, depicting Sgt Eyo B, was found on him.

We also arrested one Chinonso Eguzobi who was the informant that gave out the operation.  While we were making efforts to recover the missing police rifles, Jack assisted us in locating a housing agent who rented an apartment for Eyo and Confidence. We arrested him and he took us to Eyo’s apartment, but while we were searching for exhibit Jack   saw an opportunity to escape and jumped out of the window.

The building is a one storey and an operative who was at the ground floor shot at him as he attempted scaling the fence of the building.  He died from his bullet wounds and his body was deposited at the mortuary.  We ended up recovering the three missing police rifles belonging to deceased policemen and one other.” The source narrated.

However, Jack’s mother, Bose Bajulaye, received the shock of her life penultimate Friday, when she stormed SARS headquarters in Ikeja in search of her son.  Crime Alert gathered she slumped when she couldn’t find the name of her son on the list of inmates in the cell.   She was rushed to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, for treatment, but her quest to see her son has remained paramount to her.