- Suspects confessed that robbing passengers is their profession and after any successful operation, they drive the victims to a safer place for easy escape of their team
- Exhibits recovered from suspects transferred to the SWAT office of the Nigeria Police Force in Magbon, Abeokuta for further investigation
A taxi driver and his gang have been arrested for allegedly dispossessing unsuspecting passengers of their belongings in Ogun State.
The So-Safe Corps in Ogun State arrested the taxi driver identified as Kehinde Ogunlate and some of his accomplices with whom he had robbed passengers of their money, phones and other items in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
The State Commander of the Corps, Soji Ganzallo, through a statement by the Corps spokesman, Moruf Yusuf, said that on Friday, officers of the Corps on routine patrol, acting on intelligence, gathered that “one of the drivers who has been robbing passengers with his gang members was sighted in an area in Abeokuta.”
Ganzallo said the officers of the corps were charged to go after them and they swung into action immediately, stressing that “they traced the culprits and discovered that they had just robbed some passengers of their belongings.”
According to Ganzallo, the said Kehinde Ogunlate and one Yemi Ayoola usually “use the taxi to rob passengers.”
He stated that the suspects would collect their phones and other items, which they would later hand over to Kehinde to sell to one Olonade Dele.
Ganzallo noted that “the one-chance robber” and the rest of the suspected gang members initially escaped arrest, but were later apprehended at Itoko, Ita-Morin and Adedotun areas of the State capital.
They include: Taoreed Adeosun, his wife, Funmilayo Adeosun, Ayoola Yemi, Kehinde Ogunlate and Dele Olonade.
“The apprehended suspects confessed that robbing passengers is their profession and after any successful operation, they drive the victims to a safer place for easy escape of their team.
“They also established that Funmilayo Adeosun picked one of the stolen phones from her husband, Taoreed and sold it to an untraceable buyer,” Ganzallo explained.
He listed the items recovered to include the taxi, 16 memory cards and mobile phones.
The Corps Commander said that the suspects and the exhibits recovered from them had been transferred to the SWAT office of the Nigeria Police Force in Magbon, Abeokuta for further investigation and likely prosecution.