Sofiyat Funmilayo, 28, the girlfriend of an armed robbery suspect, has said her boyfriend, simply identified as Ochoko, is not into armed robbery but an internet fraudster, popularly known as Yahoo Yahoo.
The girlfriend of the armed robbery suspect said this after detectives attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command, told her that Ochoko was not just a hardened criminal, but a wanted leader of an armed robbery gang.
Funmilayo, looking stunned, told the police that she never knew Ochoko was into robbery.
She disclosed that she knew him to be into internet fraud.
She said: “I didn’t know Ochoko was an armed robber.
“When we started dating, he told me he was into internet fraud.
“It was when policemen came to arrest me last Wednesday that I got to know he was also involved in robbery.
“I have disgraced my parents.
“I dated Ochoko out of infatuation.
“My parents should forgive me.
“I didn’t know Ochoko was an armed robber.”
Funmilayo was picked up for allegedly keeping stolen goods for Ochoko.
She was arrested in her parents’ house in Ojo area of the state.
The police were able to track her through her phone.
Those arrested along with Funmilayo were Wasiu Adam, 24; Rasheed Yekini, 23; Babatunde Ibrahim, 27; Afeez Adeola, 20; Rilwan Muhammed, 24; Idowu Agboola, 22; Muhammed Abubakar, 21; and Emmanuel Joseph, 24.
Funmilayo said: “I don’t know anything about robbery.
“I’m only dating Ochoko.
“I met Ochoko through a friend and we started dating three months ago.
“I have never received any stolen goods from him.
“He doesn’t even come to my house.”
Asked if she knows the whereabouts of her lover, Funmilayo said: “Ochoko only told me that he was travelling to Edo State.
“I didn’t know that police were hunting for him.
“When the policemen got to our house, they approached me.
“They said they were looking for Ochoko.
“They asked me if I knew him.
“I said no.
“They collected my phone and browsed through the photo gallery.
“They saw Ochoko’s picture.
“They arrested and took me to their office.”
Funmilayo said after she was arrested, she led policemen to the house of Ochoko’s best friend, Rasheed.
Just like Funmilayo, Rasheed denied knowing his friend was into robbery.
Rasheed explained that he met Ochoko at a community football field, where most young men used to play every Saturday and a fast friendship developed.
Rasheed said: “I don’t know Ochoko as an armed robber.
“I have never robbed in my life.
“It was when policemen came to arrest me at home that I knew Ochoko was into robbery.”
Ochoko’s cousin, Adeola, stated that it was her mother that brought Ochoko from Delta State to Lagos.
He started living with them, but later moved out to live alone.
Adeola said: “We didn’t know he was into robbery.
“Presently, my mother is not happy with the situation of things.”
Joseph, like others, denied being a member of the gang, stressing that he is a member of the National Union of Road Transport Workers.
He said he was arrested along the road.
Stating his own story, Muhammed said Ochoko, who is at large, became friends with him after he returned from prison.
He said he was sent to prison for being in possession of a gun.
He said: I’m not the owner of the gun, but the pistol was found in an uncompleted building in our area.
“The gun was given to me during 2015 elections by a politician.
“But after the election, I didn’t return the gun to those that gave it to me.
“Since then, I have been using it for robbery.
“I used to rob people returning from their work places.”
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi, said the suspects were arrested after policemen from the State Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Department, Panti, led by Assistant Superintendent of Police Joseph Akingboji, received a distress call that robbers were terrorising Ojo and Okokomaiko areas of the state.
Imohimi said: “The suspects were all rounded up in their various hideouts within Ajangbadi and Okokomaiko.
“One English made double barrel gun cut to size, one locally made single barrel pistol, one live cartridge, one operational Bajaj Motorcycle with registration number AKN386-QF and a lot of weeds suspected to be Indian hemp were recovered from them.”