Twenty-four-year-old
Sherifat Bakare, is a young lady one could describe at first glance as pretty.
But as she sat on the ground in front of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the
Ogun State Police Command in Abeokuta, one cannot but imagine how deadly she
might have been on operations with her robbery gang.
“I was
hustling before Raji, my boyfriend, told me to join his gang,” Bakare began.
But when she
was asked to elaborate on what she did as a
“hustler,” she explained that she
meant prostitution.
Bakare in
company with four other members of her gang, were apprehended on Wednesday, May
21, 2014 by the men of Ogun State SARS, who had been on their trail after
receiving a tip-off about the gang’s plan.
It all began
a few weeks ago, Bakare narrated. She said another member of the gang, Bola
Onasile, (also in SARS custody) had approached her boyfriend about the
availability of N70m in a wealthy man’s house in Joju area of Sango, Ogun
State.
“I have only
gone on two operations with them. I don’t know him (Onasile) well. I only know
that he was the one who brought the job.
“Raji
gathered other members and they snatched a vehicle (a Nissan Quest) around Iwo
Road, Ibadan. We decided that the vehicle would be used for the operation.
“The gang
asked me to sit in the front of the vehicle so that when we were stopped by
policemen on the way, being a woman in the front seat would make them
unsuspicious. But during the operation, the police cornered us and Raji was
shot dead.”
Bakare did
not betray any emotions as she narrated how the operation went.
Asked if she
smoked Indian hemp like other members of her gang, she said, “I have never
tasted it, I only smoke cigarette.”
But when our
correspondent asked about her parents, tears streamed down her face.
“I am from
Idofian in Kwara State. My father is late but my mother lives in Ibadan. She
has no idea I do this kind of job and she does not even know I am in police
custody.”
Bakare
explained that she was a prostitute in Lekki where she was making up to N5,000
per day until about two years ago.
“I was
living with a security guard in a house at Osborne in Ikoyi. The landlord of
the house was out of the country. I was going from there to ‘hustle’ in Lekki
every night.
“Raji was a
good helper to me. That was why I decided to leave prostitution when he begged
me. When he introduced me to armed robbery, I asked him if there would be no
problem and he assured me that there would be none. When we started dating, I
did not know he was an armed robber though.”
Asked how
much she was promised out of the N70m they were going to steal, Bakare said
whatever went to her late boyfriend would have accrued to her as well.
The young
lady said she learnt photography when she dropped out of secondary school but
had not been able to practise the trade because she did not think she could
make much money from it.
During
Saturday Punch’s visit to the SARS office in Abeokuta, 36-year-old Onasile, who
brought the N70m job, was evasive when our correspondent asked him how he knew
about the money.
He later
said that an acquaintance of his, a man named Tunde, informed him about the
money.
Onasile
said, “Tunde is like a brother to me. He told me the man we were going to rob
was his relation. He said the man had N70m at home. I told him I had no boys
who could do the job. But he was always disturbing me about getting a gang
together to do the operation.
“Few days
later, I informed Raji about the operation and he told me he could get boys for
the job. We planned to sell the vehicle we snatched after the operation but we
did not know how police got to know about the operation. Tunde ran away when
the police were after us.”
Onasile said
he was a revenue collector for a local government council in Lagos before he
lost the job when a new chairman weeded out excess employees from the council.
According to
him, he got a job as a site thug getting assignments from land grabbers once in
a while but the money was not coming as needed.
Meanwhile, a
gang of robbers, who specialised in snatching motorcycles have been apprehended
by the SARS in Ogun State after an under cover operation.
Paraded
alongside the suspects were the receipts, which they told the police that they
issued to buyers of the motorcycles they snatched from their victims.
The Police
Public Relations Officer, Ogun State, Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, said he believed that
more members of Bakare’s robbery gang were still out on the streets. He said
investigation was still ongoing to ensure that they did not escape justice.
He said, “We
are on their trails. But we can assure the public that wherever they are, we
will hunt them down and apprehend them.
“In the case
of the gang who specialised in snatching motorcycles, our men were able to
track them down after we got a tip-off that one of them wanted to purchase a
gun.
“One of our
SARS operatives who posed as a potential seller told him the pistol was
N250,000 but the gang member said he could only afford N150,000.
“Criminals
should understand that it is not a joke when the Commissioner of Police, Mr.
Ikemefuna Okoye, says that crime would not be tolerated in any part of the
state. We mean it and will track down any criminal that ventures into this
state.”
The wives of
the gang members were also arrested because they admitted that they knew their
husbands were robbers.
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