The police in Lagos have arrested a suspected robber, Saliu John, on the Old Apapa Road, Oyingbo, after allegedly dispossessing some market women of about N28,000.
It was gathered that John, who was said to have come to the area with two others, was nabbed by members of a vigilance group after he reportedly missed his way after the operation.
John and other accomplices had suddenly become separated, forcing the suspect to hide behind a tanker parked on the road. It was learnt that some local security men saw him looking confused.
According to PUNCH, John who was arrested at about 9pm on Monday, was questioned by the security men and he told them that he had come to do business in the area from Ijora, after which he missed his way.
When the suspect was, however, searched, the vigilance group members found different purses containing money, arousing the suspicion of the security men that he attacked some market women.
The suspect was said to have been taken to the Iponri Police Division on Tuesday.
A member of the vigilance service executive, identified only as Musibau, told PUNCH that John’s three-man gang usually came to rob on Jones, Atitebi and neighbouring streets on the Old Apapa Road.
Musibau added that when John could not account for the cash found on him, the security men knew he was a robber.
He said, “It was at about 8.30pm on Monday. The robber was hiding behind a tanker parked by the roadside. It was a security man at a hotel nearby who noticed the stranded robber and alerted the vigilance group.
“When we searched him, we found purses containing sums of N1,500, N3,000, N2,500 among others, which added up to around N28,000. He could not give account of where he got the purses. He initially lied that he was coming from the Ijora area to do business and he had missed his way.
“Later, he confessed to robbery, and we held him until the morning when policemen from Iponri came to take him away. The hoodlums have a culture of robbing women who are returning from markets in the evening. They would attack them with broken bottles and clubs and collect their day’s sales.”