The suspect, Nura Mohammed, who confessed to the crime, gave a vivid account of how the gang snatched a Honda CRV Jeep, 2013 model belonging to Channels Television, at gun point.
Although he admitted that his part of the gang’s operation began and ended with receiving and disposing the stolen vehicles in Niger Republic, but added that he was always on ground each time the gang embarked on any operation.
He revealed to Daily Trust that the group had been in the business of snatching cars for over five years now.
He narrated: “I was formerly a cow dealer in Lagos. I sold cows at Agege abattoir, but sometime in 2005, I incurred a debt of about N2.6 million. I ran away from Lagos when I could not pay my debt and the owner of the money was on my neck.
“I left Lagos for Abuja where I stayed briefly. I later left Abuja for Minna, Niger State and in 2011. I joined the defunct Niger Tornadoes Football Club. I was signed with the sum of N150, 000. Our coach then was Ladan Bosso. A year later, I quit football when I sustained injury on my leg and I went back to Abuja where I started a viewing centre business. It was a young man who used to sell soft drinks close to my viewing centre that first introduced me to the business of receiving stolen vehicles.”
The 33 year-old father of two further said that he was arrested in 2012 after he bought a stolen Peugeot car from his neighbour.
CP Kayode Aderanti said that seven members of the gang were arrested from their hideout in Ikorodu area of Lagos.
The other members of the gang are Manven Bali, 40; Cheikube Emeka, 32; Ejike Chukwuemeka, 37; Jacob Ali, 28; Titus Johana 31 and Richard Augustine, 30.
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