03082019 - Worsening Insecurity: Suspected herdsmen kill Catholic priest in Enugu

24—SATURDAY Vanguard, AUGUST3, 2019
Betrayal!
Employee masterminds
robbery attack on boss,
molests wife
·I posed as a visiting S/A musician- gang leader
By Evelyn Usman
He bowed his head in shame,
unable to look into this
reporter’s eyes when
approached. By the time he managed to
lift up his head after much persuasion, it
revealed a tear- filled eyes. He quickly
dabbed the tears rolling down his
cheeks with his index fingers and in an
emotional laden tone, he said, “ I wish to
have a one-on-one session with my boss,
at least, to apologize to him because he
does not deserve this betrayal”.
McDonald Simeon, is a graduate of
Computer Engineering from the
University of Lagos, UNILAG . After
graduation in 2017, he took some
online courses on Computer Soft Ware
development , hacking and E-
commerce.
After much toiling for a job, he got a
manageable one with one Mr Michael,
who owns a studio in Lekki phase 1,
Lagos, in 2017. All was going smoothly
between him and his employer, until April
4, 2019, when the employee introduced
some visitors to his boss as musicians
from South Africa who turned out to be
robbers!
Crime Guard gathered that the
employer, his wife and eight-year-old
daughter were brutalized by the
robbers, who visited the studio to
shoot a music video. They compelled him
to transfer over N300,000, at gun point.
Thereafter, they made away with
valuables which included some hard
drives, a camera worth N800,000,
laptops, jewelries among others. As if
that was not enough, the hoodlums were
said to have striped the woman and
taunted her while the operation lasted.
I did it to raise
money—Simeon
On why he masterminded the robbery,
Simeon, bowed his head again and
said, “I did it because I had plenty issues
confronting me. Last year, I raised
some money to travel out of the country
but I was duped. I had to move out of my
place and rented an apartment at a
ghetto settlement in Jakande, Ajah, where
I met Akeem Musa, one of my
neighbors.
Knowing he was a street boy, I
approached him and told him about my
boss. He said I shoud call him (his boss)
and tell him that I was bringing some
South African musicians to come and
shoot a music video in his studio.
After fixing the appointment with my
boss, we went to his house on April 4,
2019. While others stayed outside, I called
my boss on the phone to instruct the gate
man to open the gate of the house. I then
ushered the gang of nine in. At that
point, I could not look into the face of
my boss because I felt I had betrayed him.
I also could not turn back the hand of the
clock. I just watched as they went about
the operation. After the operation, we
drove to Awoyaya, lodged in a hotel
where we spent four hours to share the
loot .
“Unfortunately, I did not get as much as
I had anticipated. I got only N40,000
from the entire deal. During the
operation, my boss was forced to transfer
N350,000 into Godwin’s account. But he
(Godwin) came back with only N100,000
saying that was what he found in his
account. I got N9,000 from N100,000
that was shared among nine of us. I was
given an apple laptop, as my loot for
giving them the information which I
sold for N80,000. I got extra N30,000
•Other suspects (From right: Musa Akeem,
Ikechukwu Collins, Uche okafor and Uche John
from the sale of other equipment we
made away with”
I acted as body guard
—Ikechukwu
On his part, Ikechukwu Collins, 21,
from Imo State, said the part he played
in the robbery operation was to act as a
body guard to the supposed South African
musician, Musa Akeem. He further stated
that he stood by the door of their
victim’s wife, while one of their fleeing
gang members whose identity he gave as
Terry ‘G’ stayed with the woman inside the
room.
He said, “This is my first time of joining
the gang. I had approached Terry ‘G’ that
I needed money and he asked me to
accompany him for a job. He gave me a
gun and was also holding another gun.
At the end of the deal, I got only
N45,000".
How we prepared for
the operation —Musa
For 24-year-old Musa Akeem, who led
the gang and also posed as the visiting
South African musician, he said, “in
order to make it look real, I had to work
on this dread hair ( pointing to his head).
The night before we went for the
operation, nine of us met at club 9,
Alpha Beach, between 11pm and 12
midnight to finalise the plan.
Thereafter, we moved to Uche’s place
at Bale street, around Alpha beach,
from where we woke up next day and
headed straight for Lekki phase 1, in two
cars.
“ The guns we used for the operation
were kept inside a bag. Before we
alighted, we shared the guns among
three of us; myself, Terry ‘G’ and Godwin
otherwise known as ‘IG’. When we got
inside, we saw the man . He greeted us
and said he would show us round
his studio so as to know the beat we
would need . As he stood up, we pointed a
gun at him and told him to kneel down.
IG tied him and ordered him to transfer
money into an account .
“But when we got to the hotel he,
(IG) went to withdraw the money but said
it was N100,000 the man transferred .
Everybody started complaining because
MC Donald told us we would get up to
N12 million there. We suspect he kept the
rest to himself. We had to sell other
things we stole at the studio and I got
N43,000 as my share”.
My regrets
At a point, the Kwara state-born
father of one, expressed regrets over his
action. He said he was particularly moved by his seven
year-old daughter’s tears when she came visiting ,
accompanied by his wife. He said, “ My wife didn’t
know I was a robber. I used to play football but it did n
favour me. I went into sale of steel, yet it did not
favour me.
Denial
Benjamin Okafor , 33 and Uche John, 25, however
claimed they did not participate in the robbery
operation. While Okafor, an Uber driver, said he was
hired to take the gang to its destination, John said his
offence was that he organized the vehicles the gang use
for the operation, insisting that they did not know th
mission of the gang.
Okafor said , “ I am a taxi driver. Uche called me t
come and pick a musician to a studio . When I brought
the car in the morning, I noticed they were not musicia
but I was scared to leave, in order not to be killed. I
waited in the car while they went into the house and
came out with some equiptment. Thereafter, I took
them to the hotel and I was paid N5,000 at the end”.
Arrest
The suspects , were arrested by operatives of the
Special Anti robbery Squad, SARS while investigating
separate robbery gang involving Musa Akeem. H
was arrested for allegedly snatching a vehicle from its
owner around Ajah axis , three weeks ago. But during
investigation, he opened up on other crimes he had bee
involved in, which included the operation at the studio
where he posed as a South African musician.
We drug taxi drivers, steal their cabs—suspec
By Ifeanyi Okolie
Two suspects, who specialized in
drugging taxi drivers operating
at the Federal Capital Territory,
FCT, Abuja, before stealing their
vehicles, have been arrested by
operatives of the Inspector General of
Police Special Intelligence Response
Team, IRT.
Vanguard gathered that the suspects
who were identified as Sanusi Balla
and Nurudeen Ibrahim, ran into
trouble recently when they drugged
and killed a serving soldier with the
Nigeria Army, Sergeant Richard
Akaeze, and made away with his
Peugeot 406 saloon car.
Police sources told Vanguard that the
suspects who normally tricked their
victims to drinking joints around the
FCT, where they would drug their
drinks or food before stealing their
victims’ vehicles, gave Sergeant Akaeze
an overdose of the drug that killed him.
The suspects were said to have buried his
corpse hurriedly in a yet to be disclosed
site and took away his mobile phones and
his car which he was using for taxi.A
source explained that the Inspector
General of Police, Adamu Mohammed
was alerted about Akaeze’s
disappearance by his colleagues in the
army, few days after he failed to return
home from his business and operatives of
the IRT, headed by Abba Kyari, were
directed to investigate and unravel the
circumstances surrounding his
disappearance. It was gathered that when
the operatives commenced investigations,
Akaeze’s stolen mobile phone was
tracked and the operatives discovered
that the phone was being used by one of
the suspects, Balla, who owned a car
stand in Kaura Local Government Area of
Zamfara State and was equally a staff of
•Suspect Macdonald
the Local Government. Balla was said to have
confessed after his arrest that his friend, Ibrahim, who
was based in Abuja gave him the mobile phone when h
brought a Peugeot 406 for him to buy but that he said
he didn’t buy the vehicle because he had no money at
that time. Balla explained further that aside his car
selling business and his job as a clerk at the local
government, he had joined Ibrahim in several
operations at the FCT where they drugged their victim
before stealing their vehicles. He however denied
taking part in the operation where Ibrahim drugged
and killed the late soldier, before stealing his vehicle
and his mobile phone that was found on him. Police
sources added that Balla assisted the police in arrestin
Ibrahim in Abuja, but he denied meeting, drugging or
killing Sergeant Akaeze, when he was interrogated,
while admitting that he was in the business of drugging
and stealing from unsuspecting taxi drivers operating
in the FCT and his targets were mainly greedy taxi
drivers who had uncontrollable appetite for free drinks
Our modus operandi—Balla
When the suspects were interviewed, 37-year-old