A 21-year-old armed robbery suspect, Rasheed Sulaimon, has told his police interrogators that he went into crime to prove a point to neighbours who were always calling him a thief in Ajegunle, Lagos, when he was growing up.
The police said they apprehended Sulaimon and another suspect, Johnson Frank, when the two men allegedly attacked residents of the Area, Aiyetoro, Lagos, on June 28, 2020.
The suspect, according to the police, said the negative reference to him as a thief by the neighbours kept hunting him throughout his youthful days.
“He said he vowed to take his pound of flesh from the neighbours when he grows up. So he deliberately went into crime.
“He said that he robbed one of the women who called him a thief then but was caught and handed over to the police.
“He said he met 23-year-old Johnson while in police cell,” the police said.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Bala Elkana, told our correspondent yesterday that on June 28, 2020, at about 1.30am, police operatives from the Ajegunle Division, Lagos, received a distress call that some armed robbers had besieged the Ayetoro area of Ajegunle, robbing residents of their valuables.
Elkana said that the operatives swiftly mobilized to the scene and arrested Sulaimon and Johnson.
“Two cutlasses and knives were recovered from them,” the PPRO said.
Elkana also disclosed that on June 28, 2020, the police arrested a group of suspected cultists at Ijora-Badiya in the Lagos metropolis while they were robbing passers-by and motorists, damaging their vehicles.
“The suspects are Saheed Idris, 28; Sunday Ifelowo, 28; Adams Babatunde, 32; Akeem Ajibola, 32; Jamiu Balogun, 24; Sodiq Balogun, 22; and Muritala Ibrahim, 22.
“It was revealed that the suspects are cult members of the Aiye and Eiye confraternities. They are responsible for recent attacks on the residents of Ijora/Ajegunle,” he added.