A robbery suspect, Joseph Sunday, has told how he made up his mind to join robbery after his company, First Bank Limited, laid him off.
Sunday was arrested by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja, Lagos State for robbery in March 2014.
This would be second time he would be arrested for robbery.
He has gone to the prison twice.
If he is found guilty this time around, he would become a prison guest for the third time.
He explained that he went to prison twice because of only one robbery operation.
According to him, he had been given bail, but had to be recalled to prison after a new judge took over his case.
Sunday’s words: “It was not as if I robbed and they took me to prison for the second time.
“This is the second time I would be arrested for robbery.
“Prison inmates who saw me twice in prison didn’t know what happened.
“What happened was that I was given bail after my sister spent a whooping sum of money and then I was granted bail.
“But my bail was later cut short and I was taken back to Kirikiri prison.
“I later got to understand that my bail was cut because the judge in charge of my case was transferred and a new one took over.
“My sister spent almost N200,000 to get my bail.
“It was serious money.
“I had to raise money for another bail.
“The money for that was N250,000.
“When it seemed the second bail was not going to stick, I raised money for the third bail.
“If I go to prison now, it would be the third time I would be entering the place, but if I’m allowed to go by the police, this would be goodbye to robbery!”
Sunday said that he was a professional driver before working with First bank Limited, Elephant House, Marina in 2010 and then he took to crime.
He added: “It was because I lost my job that I took to crime.
“In fact, it was friends that pushed me into robbery.”
He said that after he lost his job, he went to meet some of his friends at Onipanu.
They were professional drivers like him.
Most of them were his childhood friends.
He told them that he had lost his job and needed a job to survive.
They promised to bring any driving work his way.
It was at that Onipanu that he met Isiaka and his life went downhill.
Sunday recalled: “It was there I met and became friendly with Isiaka.
“It’s almost four years now that I had not set eyes on Isiaka.
“It was Isiaka that initiated me into robbery.
“Yes, I complained to him that I didn’t have a job anymore.
“No, he was not a conductor or driver.
“He was into robbery as a business.
“He took me to Maryland, under the bridge, to introduce me to his friends and gang.
“He told the gang that I was a driver and that I would be driving them whenever there was an operation.
“The first robbery I went with the gang was at Ogudu Road, Ojota.
“We snatched a vehicle there.
“It was a Toyota Camry car.
“We were four that went for that operation and we had two guns with us.
“We had never killed in that gang.
“In fact, I had never killed in my life.
“In that Ojota operation, we dragged the man down from his car, collected the money that was with him, abandoned him on the road and made away with the car.
“We sold the car for N300,000. But the buyer, Wale, paid only half, promising to balance later.
“When we shared the first half of the money, I got N30,000 as my share.
“Wale is a fraudster, nobody trusts him.
“He didn’t pay us the balance of the money.
“But I have now promised my God, that if I go back to robbery or crime after this one, I should accept whatever I see.
“Please beg the police to let me go. I have changed.
“My mother used to warn me but I wouldn’t listen, but now I’m ready to listen.
“I wish to have an opportunity to call my mother and tell her that I’m sorry for not heeding her warnings.”
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