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.
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