RRS Operatives Nab 3 Suspected Uber Snatchers, Recover 2 Guns & 7 Cartridges

CYRIACUS IZUEKWE

Operatives of Rapid Response Squad (RRS) have arrested three suspected robbers who lured an Uber driver, strangulated him and made away with his 2006 model Toyota Camry car in Lagos.

P.M.EXPRESS reports that the Police also recovered two locally made guns and seven live cartridges from another set of suspected robbers on Eko Bridge.

The suspected Uber car snatchers were arrested early on Thursday morning at Lekki area of Lagos, when they were on their way to hand over the snatched car to a buyer.

Some RRS operatives had in few hours to the arrest, prevented six robbers from accessing Lagos Island after they chased a convoy of three motorcycle riders and recovered two loaded and cocked guns from the suspects.

Sources said that the 6 suspected robbers were on motorcycles riding against the traffic on Eko Bridge when they sighted RRS patrol vehicle approaching. While trying to make a detour, the parcel containing the loaded and cocked guns they had fell just as they were speeding away. The suspected robbers escaped while the officers eventually retrieved the guns.

The suspected Uber car snatchers, Daniel Alagor, 28, Samuel Effiong, 25, and three other suspects who are still at large, had on Wednesday night requested for Uber service through Alagor’s phone line.

Supported by one Blessing (still at large), Alagor told the Uber driver, Ekwomi Charles, to take the duo to Abijo GRA from Jakande Estate, Lekki at around 11pm.

Almost midway into the trip, Blessing, according to Alagor, the mastermind of the car snatching plan, told the driver that they were going for a birthday party around Shoprite, Sangotedo, and that they were going to pick up two of their colleagues at Abijo GRA, Ajah.

The Uber driver in his statement to the Police narrated, “I agreed to pick up their friends and drop them at the venue of the party as we were already in Abijo GRA but I noticed that their friends were not at the bus stop”.

“They called their friends and we agreed I move into the Estate to meet them on their way. I drove about 100 metres and I didn’t still see their friends. I then insisted I was going no further.”

He continued, “They eventually came back to the car. Immediately they entered the car, they tied a rope around my neck from the back seat. Then, all of them started punching me till I passed out. Thinking that I was dead, they took me into the bush and dropped my body near an uncompleted building. They left beside me a knife after tying me. Thank God I woke up later! I reported at the closest police station and eventually I learnt men of the RRS have arrested them”.

The suspects, according to sources, after presumably killing the Uber driver, left one of them in Abijo GRA while the three others Alagor, Blessing and another suspect, whose identity Police are working on, drove the car to Shoprite at Sangotedo to pick Samuel Effiong, who had already negotiated with a buyer based in Fashola Estate, Lekki, Lagos.

According to Effiong, “Blessing some time ago told me that he wanted to sell a car. He called me on phone around midnight on Wednesday to take him to the person that wanted to buy the car. They picked me up at Shoprite, Sangotedo. I didn’t follow him to where they stole the vehicle”.

“We were close to Fashola Estate when we ran into one RRS patrol vehicle. They stopped us for a check. Blessing and his friend bolted while Alagor and I were arrested. They also arrested Emeka Okoye, alias Tallest, who wanted to link us to the buyer” Effiong said.

Police investigations to unravel where the Uber driver’s body was deposited by the suspects led to the recovery of further evidence like a kitchen knife, ropes and fez cap, reportedly belonging to Blessing.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, CP Zubairu Muazu, while applauding his men on the two developments, directed that all the suspects be transferred to SCIID for further investigations.