Four Chadians nabbed in Ogun for highway robbery, rifles recovered

The Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Lagos State Police Command has arrested four Chadians who specialise in placing obstacles on highways to puncture tyres of motorists in the bid to rob them.
The suspects were said to be part of the gang that had been terrorizing different parts of the Lagos State metropolis until their arrest.
They were arrested at Kara Cattle Market in Ogun State after police received a tip-off from an informant.
The gang leader is one Mustapha, also a Chadian, now at large.
According to the suspects, it was Mustapha who recruited every one of them.
One of the modus operandi was to place sharp objects on highways to perforate the tyres of motorists, forcing them to halt, before pouncing and robbing them of their valuables.
The suspects identified as Jamal Nasiru, Ahmed Mohammed, Umaru Abubakar and Sale Abubakar, are being detained at SARS.
Also arrested were people who used to buy stolen items from the gang after their robbery expeditions.
According to the police, four pump action guns, locally made pistols, cutlasses and charms were recovered from the suspects by SARS operatives.
Also recovered from them were several laptops.
Most of the laptops were forcefully collected from residents of Magodo.
All the members of the gang are Chad citizens who came into Lagos for security guards jobs.
Aside from the four suspects presently in SARS custody, three others are still at large and efforts are on to apprehend them.
A police source revealed that one of the suspects at large was still working as a security guard at a home in Omole Estate before escaping after he learnt that his gang members had been arrested.
A police source revealed: “The state Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, was alerted on the activities of a notorious armed robbery gang, terrorising residents of Magodo, Omole and other estates around.
“The informant also hinted that the same gang operated on the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway by the long bridge where they place dangerous obstacles on the highway to puncture tyres of unsuspecting motorists in order to rob them and also their constant raid of Kara Cattle Market.”
Immediately Manko received the information, he instructed the Officer-in-Charge of SARS, Abba Kiyari, a Superintendent of Police, to investigate the matter and ensure that the suspects were arrested.
It was further gathered that after a comprehensive investigation, the receiver of the stolen goods, Atom Haruna, was arrested.
The gang’s waterloo started after police received information of its criminal activities and embarked on surveillance.
It was apparently based on their discoveries that SARS decided to go after the buyers of the stolen goods.
Detectives used the buyers as bait to catch the four suspects now in SARS custody.
Another police source explained: “A Joint team of SARS and men from the Isheri Police Station first arrested their buyer with many laptops at Ojodu Berger.
“The buyer took the teams to Omole Estate and Kara Cattle Market in Ogun State, where the four suspects were arrested.
“The four Chadians confessed to terrorising Lagos/Ibadan Expressway by long bridge/Kara Cattle Market axis for a long time.
“They also confessed that they attacked several houses at Magodo and Omolo Estates before we arrested them and recovered for four pump action guns, locally made pistols and cutlasses from them.”
One of the suspects reportedly said: “We are paid N15,000 every month as security men.
“The money is not enough to take care of our needs.
“We were trying to think of other things to do to make more money when our gang leader, Mustapha, told us how lucrative armed robbery was and convinced us to form a gang.
“That was how we started until we were arrested.”