The commissioner of police in Lagos, Idowu Owohunwa, on Monday, announced the arrest of three suspects, who allegedly robbed and killed Sanni Adeniyi, an aide to Senator Solomon Yayi.

Mr Owohunwa told journalists at the command’s headquarters, Ikeja, that the suspects were arrested in Lagos and Oyo, respectively.

On August 5,  the lawmaker representing Ogun West, Sen. Solomon Yayi, in a statement by his media aide, Kayode Odunaro, alleged that some soldiers killed his aide, Sanni Adeniyi Sanni.

The police boss in Lagos, however, said the suspects were not members of the Nigerian Army, stressing that they were armed robbers, who had served various jail terms before and were connected while at the correctional centres in Lagos and Ibadan.

“The arrest of the suspects, one Fred Okunnu, aged 43, Lucky Micheal, aged 33 and Adedigba Segun, aged 26, follows weeks of painstaking, diligent and discreet intelligence and investigative sets of actions.

“Items recovered from the suspects are one Brownie pistol with three rounds of live ammunition, one Beretta pistol with three rounds of live ammunition, one locally made cut-to-size pistol with six live cartridges and six expended cartridges,” he said.

The commissioner said they also recovered military gear (military camouflage vest, military jungle hat, military holster, jungle boots) and one red Honda CRV with Reg. No. EKY 276 JD allegedly hijacked from a yet-to-be-identified victim.

Mr Owohunwa noted that the investigation has revealed that the gang was being armed by one Alhaji (based in Benin Republic), who specialises in robbing motorists of their unregistered vehicles.

He said the gang have been successful in five previous operations, stressing that their modus operandi includes stationing one gang member some metres from Berger bus stop, a boundary between Lagos State and Ogun, to spot unregistered vehicles.

According to the CP, the spotter then calls his gang members, who are dressed in military attire and stationed somewhere around Berger bus stop, to inform them of the approaching vehicle.

“Once they stop their victim, they request for the vehicle’s custom papers, as they would need to clear security and customs checks. In this incident, after seeing the papers, they insisted on taking their victim to their base.

“Once they entered the vehicle, it dawned on Sanni Adeniyi that they were robbers. He called out for help, which made the robbers shoot him thrice and further stabbed him.

“They dropped his corpse by the roadside and drove to Kuto, Abeokuta, where they cleaned up the blood stains in the rear seats of the vehicle and later same night proceeded with the vehicle to the border town of Chikanda in Kwara State, where the criminal receiver, one Alhaji took delivery of the car,” he explained.

Mr Owohunwa further said the suspects adopted the use of military attire to beat security checkpoints.

The police boss pointed out that further investigations revealed that the said Alhaji has other cells operating across the country, stressing that as a transnational crime, the command was involving the Interpol in the apprehension of this criminal receiver and financier. 

(NAN)