Police, Traffic Robbers In Fierce Supremacy Battle

CYRIACUS IZUEKWE

When the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, CP Sylvester Abiodun Alabi, resumed duty, he made it very clear that there was no space for traffic robbers and since then there had been a supremacy battle between the robbers and the Police.

P.M.EXPRESS had reported how the robbers reacted and robbed innocent people of their valuables across the State, which may have made the Police to be more determined to get rid of them to avoid embarrassment. 

The operatives of the Lagos Rapid Response Squad (RRS) on Thursday went on rampage and arrested three traffic robbers at Ikeja City Mall while the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Mile 2 Park, assisted the Police in arresting four notorious traffic robbers in the area.

Four of the suspects, Segun Peters (22), Kabiru Odeh (25), Nurudeen Suraj (22) and Dennis Ikuvbogie (24), were arrested at Mile 2 while having a field day; other suspects, Anifowoshe Kolawole (20), Patrick Ameke (21) and John Britto (27) were picked around Ikeja City Mall based on complaints on their illicit activities around the area.

The Commander, Rapid Response Squad (RRS), CSP Olayinka Egbeyemi, who had on a tip off on the activities of traffic robbers in the Mile 2 area, deployed plain clothes Police men to the area in order to monitor and arrest the suspects. 

The NURTW members had hounded down the four suspects before the officers got there. The suspects were thereafter handed over to the Police team for investigation and prosecution.

One of the suspects, Nurudeen Suraj, was a week ago arrested and detained at Agboju Police Station. He explained that he was released from prison two months ago. 

Those arrested in Ikeja were selectively picked up after a petition initiated by the management of Ikeja City Mall on reported incidences of traffic robbery in the area.

The suspects, who were placed under close monitoring before their arrest, on most occasions pretended to be beggars and nose mask vendors. 

They used the ploy to rob motorists and pedestrians visiting the complex.

One of the suspects, Anifowsoshe Kolawole, who had been warned on many occasions by Policemen pleaded for leniency.

The Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alabi, commended the civilians, who provided the intelligence to the Police as well as those who assisted the Police in arresting the suspects, stressing that, our communities would become safer if people co-operated with the Police.

The arrest of the suspects may have proved to the robbers that the Police boss, CP Alabi, is prepared to get rid of them as he had earlier warned them to stay clear from the State.