Lagos Police Arrest, Parade 39 Criminal Suspects, Alleged “Baby Thief,” Currency Counterfeiter

 

.Crack Six Cases including Robbery, Assault, Cultism

ARINZE NWAFOR

The Lagos State Police arrested and paraded 39 criminal suspects for engaging in armed robbery, stealing, cultism, vandalization and murder. They also cracked six cases from unstated months.

 

The police arrested the criminal suspects under Operation Flush, a statewide criminal operation launched on July 27, 2023, to tackle pockets of crime resurfacing in parts of Lagos State, according to the Lagos Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Benjamin Hundeyin.

 

Hundeyin outlined the cases, Friday which included the Lagos police’s Iponri division arrest of one Zarhanu Garba (39) and one Maikusa Mohammed (42) when the command caught them vandalizing aluminium rails on the Iganmu bridge by 2:20 am.

 

Hundeyin said the officers recovered five bridge aluminium rails from the suspects and that the command will charge them to court for prosecution immediately after the conclusion of their investigation.

 

The Lagos police also arrested one George Ebukeebuna (56) for counterfeiting currencies, after one Emmanuel of Trade-Fair Complex Lagos reported him at the command.

 

The police discovered Ebukeebuna counterfeited 245 fake $50 notes, wrapped them up and brought them to the informant’s office to send to Congo Kinshasa

 

Hundeyin said the suspect, Ebukeebuna, has since confessed to the crime and that the police will arraign him soon.

 

Next, the police arrested one Wisdom Chidubem Iwoha (27), and Ebuka Duru (26) at Ilasamaja, Lagos, in connection to a reported theft of a Toyota Camry saloon car and Tecno Camon 15 Android smartphone at Ajao Estate, Lagos State. The police identified the two suspects as the receivers.

 

In addition to the earlier arrest of the receivers of the stolen car in Ajao Estate, the police arrested Gbenga Olamide (38), Olufemi Olanrewaju (40) and Christain Oramuru (31) at the Lagos/ Ogun toll gate, and recovered one Toyota Rav4 jeep, one Toyota Camry Saloon car and one Toyota Corolla Saloon car.

 

Further, the police arrested one Adeniyi Adeleke (29) aka Mosquito (gang leader), one Noah Olaniyi (26) and Olamilekan Osheneye (24) for breaking into the home and robbing a victim of his valuables, including gold wristwatches, Apple laptops, gold necklace and jewellery valued at N5 million, four hundred thousand.

 

On two separate occasions, Hundeyin said the operatives of Area K Command arrested one Dare Jimoh (28) and with further investigation, arrested one Lasisi Taofeek (42) aka Agbara, and Kareem Lukman (37) aka Irawo at Badagry area.

 

The Flush team recovered arms from the suspects who turned out to be “members of the dreaded Eiye confraternity terrorizing Badagry,” including four live cartridges from Jimoh as well as one locally made single-barrel pistol and one expended cartridge from the rest of the suspects.

 

The Lagos PPRO said the command is making efforts to conclude the investigation and prosecute the cultism suspects.

 

Meanwhile, the police paraded a suspect, Musa Durowoju who is the subject of a case of child stealing and domestic violence.

 

Hundeyin noted that a woman, Mariam, brought a complaint against her husband, Durowoju, and another female suspect, Mulikatu – who is still at large – and accused her husband of taking away their two female children from her forcefully to an unknown destination.

 

The children, Nabeela and Nodia, were at the time of the incident one-year, two-month-old and two-month-old respectively.

 

Hundeyin noted that the suspect, Durowoju, had successfully taken the children away by luring the complainant, Mariam, to an apartment that he claimed to have rented for the family.

 

Hundeyin said Mariam also alleged that her husband had assaulted her and that all efforts she made to recover her kids have proved abortive.

 

Hundeyin added that the case is still under investigation.

 

Apart from cases the Lagos police handled in the unstated months, the command cracked four cases that they got reports on from the months of March, June and August and seven cases from the month of July.

 

From the cases the police cracked in those months, the authorities recovered a total of six arms, 26 live ammunition, two expended ammunition, one battle axe, four vehicles, some hard drugs, counterfeit currencies, wristwatches, phones, a knife, aluminium rails and others.

 

The Lagos PPRO, Hundeyin, said that Operation Flush is also meant to “support existing frameworks for battling violent crimes like robbery and cultism amongst other vices.”

 

He said the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, CP Idowu Owohunwa assured Lagosians that the command would continue to do everything operationally possible to ensure that crime and criminality are brought to the barest minimum in the State.