MICHAEL AKINOLA
Police operatives from the Lagos State Command have arrested a man, Ifeanyi Ezennaya, for allegedly robbing six women of their phones, money and other items.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that the suspect, Ezennaya, was said to have lured the ladies to different hotels, drugged them and robbed them of their belongings.
It was gathered on Saturday that the officers at Surulere Division arrested the suspect on Thursday in a hotel at Allen Avenue, Ikeja, where he was about to rob another lady.
According to one of the victims, who spoke on behalf of some others, she said they met the suspect a few days ago while celebrating the birthday of one of them in a bar.
“We met him at a bar. He approached us and introduced himself as Emeka. He claimed he is just back from Switzerland and he wants to be our friend,” she said.
“Two of us gave him our phone contacts. On Tuesday, he called that we should hang out in a hotel and we honoured the invitation. He ushered us to the room he had already booked.
He brought out red wine and some energy drinks from the fridge and served us and that was all we could remember.”
Another victim, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said when they eventually woke up after sleeping for six hours, the suspect was nowhere to be found.
“We drank the wine around 7pm and woke up at about 1am, and discovered that we had been robbed of our six iPhones, wristwatches, gold chain, among other items.”
“It was then it dawned on us that our drinks were spiked with drugs. He also withdrew the sum of N50,000 from the account of one of us with the ATM card he stole. We later learnt that he had sent our phones to Onitsha through waybill and sold them for N900,000” she said.
Giving an update on the incident, the Lagos PPRO, Benjamin Hundeyin, said the suspect robbed the women of three pieces of iPhone 12, two pieces of iPhones 11 Pro Max, one iPhone XR, a Nokia phone, one wristwatch and one gold necklace, with a total value of N2,368,000.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect has no fixed address but lures women to different hotels, where he drugs and robs them clean. Investigations further revealed that he has robbed over thirty women since he ventured into this crime.
“While the stolen items have all been recovered before he could dispose of them, an investigation is on to apprehend receivers of stolen items he works with. Suspects will be arraigned at the end of investigation” the Police spokesman said.
The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, CP Abiodun Alabi, has assured all residents of Lagos that the Command will continue to work towards the decimation of crime and criminality in the Centre of Excellence.
He equally enjoined Nigerians to be vigilant and report any suspicious happening to security agencies.