In June 2011, when operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, at the Lagos State Police Command cracked a notorious robbery gang that specialized in breaking into Automated Teller Machines, ATM, across major banks in the state, they were elated, believing they have ended the reign of the gang.

Former spokesman of Ijaw National Congress, INC, and Coordinator of Ijaw Monitoring Group, IMG, Comrade Joseph Evah in this interview with Vanguard, denied allegations of the presence of a militant camp in Lagos and spoke on issues arising from the Amnesty programme for youths and communities in the Niger Delta. Excerpts:

The duo of Emmanuel Onyeka, a trader and Mrs. Chichi Obiajulu, a beer parlor operator at Aguda, Surulere, Lagos will never forget what happened to them last Sunday, in a hurry. In fact, while they are alleging that they were victims of kidnapping, the police is investigating whether their ugly encounter with a customer in the bar was a kidnap or ritual attempt.

Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Umaru Manko has assured that police will unearth the true circumstances that led to the alleged killing of Mr. Ugochukwu Ozuah by gunmen suspected to be members of the force at the UPS Junction in Gbagada area of Lagos recently.

But for providence,23-year-old Ogbonna Eze , a commercial motorcyclist from Opi Community in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu state, would have been lying six feet below the earth. Eze, who is currently undergoing treatment in an undisclosed private hospital around Bishop Shanahan area of Nsukka, over an attack from some Fulani herdsmen, fled Kano State following the bomb attacks by the dreaded Boko Haram sect.

Some members of a vigilante group recently engaged a gang of suspected armed robbers at Celeniza community in Iba local Government Development Area in Okokomaiko, Lagos, in a gun battle, killing a member of the gang.

The Police in Lagos have arrested eight suspected members of separate bank robbery gangs that raided two new generation banks recently, where the sum of N8 Million was carted away in one of the operations. Surprisingly, two of the suspects were discovered to be drivers attached to both banks. They confessed during interrogation to have given the robbers information on how and when to storm the banks.

OMUOKIRI-ALUU, a bubbling university community was seemingly lifeless when Vanguard Features, VF, visited the place after the brutal murder of three students of the University of Port Harcourt and their friend in the early hours of Friday.

BARELY one year ago, about 20 boys in Ajegunle, a suburb in Lagos metropolis popularly referred to as the ‘jungle city’ came together to form an association christened ‘One million boys’. The original motive for this according to investigation, was to fight perceived injustices that are synonymous with the ‘City’

THEY were surreptitious and calculated as they arrived a sparsely populated village of Era in Abule, Iyana-Era of Oto-Awori LGA, of Lagos state. Their mission? To sneak into one of the buildings and cart away whatever they could lay their hands on. But they were not so smart enough to observe that an eagle-eyed member of a vigilante group in the community was on their trail as they made their moves.

…They tied our husbands, robbed at gun point – victims
GUNMEN suspected to be armed robbers last fortnight stormed Celenzia Community in Okokomaiko area of Lagos State and subjected the residents to untold hardship and torture. They particularly struck at 2, Charley Pace Street, broke into the flats and tied their husbands together while the women were compelled to bring all they have in their kitchens. As the women were busy preparing delicious dishes for them, the bandits ransacked their apartments and collected over N235, 000 including their valuables.

AUGUST 31, 2012 will,forever, remain indelible in the memory of Mrs Johnson Akinsanjo, following the circumstances that resulted in the death of her husband, thereby plunging her into an unprepared status of widowhood.

FOR two years, Osakpolor Igbinosa, the Oriowon, Edo State born Material Security Officer attached to the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company, NSPMC, with its head office in Victoria Island, Lagos, had basked in the euphoria of stealing printed naira notes from his company without being caught.

The Police in Lagos recorded an unprecedented feet yesterday after it uncovered two buses used as armory by notorious armed robbers who were said to be brains behind several robberies in Lagos and the neighboring states of Ogun, Kwara, Kogi and Edo.

OPERATIVES of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad have arrested two persons for their alleged connivance in the massive robbery attacks two Sundays ago in Lagos, which left three policemen and some civilians dead, with several others wounded. A one-year-old baby was also hit by bullets during their dare-devil operation which lasted for hours.