The Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Lagos State Police
Command has apprehended a 30-year-old man believed to have been the mastermind
of two robberies at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja in 2012
and 2013.
The suspect, Samuel Mayegun, aka Asiwaju, who claimed to be
a graduate of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Ogun State, was arrested in
the Ikorodu area of Lagos last Thursday.
PUNCH Metro had reported in April 2013 that about eight
suspects stole over N400m from bureau de change operators at the airport in
2012 and went for another robbery the following year and carted away N9m.
The police were able to arrest most of the suspects after
the second robbery but it was learnt that Mayegun continued to evade arrest
from policemen until he was arrested by policemen while attempting to stage
another robbery.
The suspect, who claimed to have made N45m from the
robberies, said he continued to rob because all his investments had failed.
He said his only regret was that he did not flee the country
when he had the chance to.
He said, “My regret is that I did not heed the advice of my
friends who told me to run away from the country because N45m was enough to do good
business abroad.
“I also feel sad that God saved me and gave me the
opportunity to escape, but I messed it up. God really loved me because all our
members were rounded up and I was the only one left, yet I did not use the
opportunity to escape.”
The suspect, who claimed to be married with children, said
he continued to rob because he was constantly losing money from his businesses.
He said, “I invested some of my share in some businesses: I
bought lands and trucks for transport business. Some of my share was taken from
me by some street urchins who got wind of the robbery and threatened to report
me to the police, so I gave them some money. Unfortunately, my transport
business did not move well and I became broke.
“I did not want to go back to robbery because all other
members had been arrested by SARS, but because of hunger, I was forced to make
one more attempt this year. I was unlucky that it was in SARS hands that I
landed.”
The suspect said all those who participated in the robbery
were given N45m each except the informants at the airport who received N1m
each.
PUNCH Metro learnt that Mayegun was arrested by SARS men,
led SP Abba Kyari, while he was staging another robbery with four others,
identified as Biodun Adegayo, Ezekiel Anthony, Ibrahim Sado and Femi Osiyelu.
Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, while parading the
suspects, said they were arrested based on a tip-off by a credible source.
He said, “On that fateful day, we received a tip off about
2am that the notorious armed robber had left his hideout in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun
State, for Ikorodu, Lagos, where they were planning a mega operation the next
day.
“We recovered one
general purpose machine gun, one Ak47 rifle with serial number 533124, two
double-barreled locally-made pistols, 10 GPMG and eight AK47 magazines
respectively and 32 live cartridges.
“During
interrogation, Mayegun confessed to the robberies at the airport, where a
bureau de change was robbed and millions of naira was carted away, and he
admitted to getting N45m as his share.
“He had recruited
other gang members to continue his nefarious acts because he thought the police
had forgotten him being the only member of the airport robbery gang that eluded
arrest.”
Manko said the
suspect also confessed to participating in other robberies in both Lagos and
some South West states and a bank robbery in Kwara State.
PUNCH
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