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Two of the robbery suspects, who were arrested while they
were operating on Iju Road, in the Agege area of Lagos, have
escaped from the police cell.
It was learnt that 3 suspected members of the gang, who
reportedly attacked and robbed a hotel and some residences of
Sands Avenue, off Iju Road, had been handed over to the
Pen Cinema Police Division, before two of them escaped from
the cell.
It was gathered that policemen, who were on duty on the
fateful day, had been arrested, while the fleeing suspects are yet
to be captured.
According to reports, on Sunday, August 9, at about
2am, about 10 armed robbers, invaded the area, and robbed a
hotel and some private homes and they carted away money and
valuables from the hotel lodgers, workers, and other places
during the operation.
It was gathered that men of the Oodua Peoples’ Congress,
OPC, who were the local vigilance group in the area,
however, apprehended 3 of the robbers and took them to the
Pen Cinema Police Division.
It was there that the three robbery suspects, identified as Dare
Drain, Akeem AK, and Lekan Student, were locked up in the
cell by the policemen on duty.
It was gathered that on Wednesday evening, two of the
suspects however, cut through the burglar bars in the cell, and
escaped from custody.
Victims of the robbery and the OPC men, who were aggrieved
by the development, were said to have been invited by a
policemen to the station who pacified them and assured them
that the robbers would be re-arrested.
When PUNCH Metro visited Sands Avenue on Tuesday, the
manager of the hotel, which was robbed, declined to give any
comment.
However, one of the workers, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said the robbers carted away a huge amount of
money and also injured the hotel’s guard.
He added that the robbers raped some of the hotel’s female
workers, who had yet to resume work.
He said:
“The robbery lasted for more than an hour. We were
helpless. The robbers overpowered our security guard
and injured him.
“They carted away valuables. They raped some of our
female workers during the operation. I was told that
the OPC men later caught three of them and took them
to the police station.”
Speaking with PUNCH Metro , the OPC coordinator in the
area, who did not want his name in print, said they were taken
aback when the police in the Pen Cinema station told them that
two of the suspects escaped from the cell.
He added that the suspects, who had yet to be re-arrested,
raped some of their victims during the operation, including a
13-year-old.
He said,:
“The security man at the hotel, who is our member,
recognised one of the robbers and led us to his place,
where he was arrested. The man confessed to taking
part in the operation. His name is Dare Drain, and he
was caught in the Idi-Agbon area of Ifako.
“He was the one who took the OPC men to arrest the
other two. The three that were caught on Sunday
were taken to the police station.
“It was on Wednesday that information got to us that
Drain and Akeem have escaped from the cell. We were
shocked at the development. The DPO then invited us,
and pleaded with us to assist the police with information
to re-arrest them, adding that the policemen on duty
had been detained.
“But as we speak, we have not got them. What the
police told us was that the robbers cut the burglar bars,
and escaped from the cell. The robbers, apart from
carting away money, also raped their victims.
“The robbers were led by Dare Drain, he and his boys
had earlier come to Tarkwa Crescent, before the
Sands Avenue incident.”
It was learnt from a source that the robbery suspects lurked
around Oju Irin area in Agege mostly at night.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP
Patricia Amadin, however, said in a text message to
Punch that there was no truth in the incident.
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