Amos Daniel, a 36-year-old robbery suspect who stole his employer’s car the day he was engaged as a driver, has been taken into custody by the Lagos State Police Command.
Daniel admitted that he drove the car to his church to share the good news of God’s abundant supply.
Speaking with journalists, the arrested driver, Daniel, said, “I stole my madam’s Lexus car and took it to the church to testify that God has blessed me. I intended to use it for Uber and use the proceeds to pay my debt. I stole the car on June 23, 2024, the very first day I was employed, and I took it to church on June 30, 2024.”
In a separate case, Abdulau Mohammed and Akeem Suleiman, two ex-soldiers, were paraded with other suspects for their role in a robbery gang, along with two accomplices who were civilians.
The gang supposedly operated while donning military headgear. From the discharged soldiers, the police retrieved military headgear, uniforms, and identity cards.
Thankgod Kesh-David, a 25-year-old suspect who pretended to be a roadside technician to fix broken-down cars before vanishing with them, was also paraded by the police.
The command spokesman, SP Benjamin Hudenyin, briefed reporters at the Command Headquarters in Ikeja on Tuesday. “We have successfully arrested a robbery gang through our tactical team based in Surulere,” he said. The four-person gang’s specialty was robbing drivers of their cars in Lagos at gunpoint.
“They have been operating for quite a long time. Two of them are dismissed soldiers, one was dismissed in 2014 and the other in 2017. They carried out their crime wearing full military gear.
“We also have somebody who was employed as a driver. Unfortunately, the employer did not do due diligence. The same day he resumed as a driver, he ran away with the car and could not be traced.
“Interestingly, he dedicated the car in church the following Sunday, testifying of what God had done to him.
One of the dismissed soldiers, Akeem Suleiman, told reporters, “I started robbery in April 2024.” Suleiman claimed he was expelled from the Nigerian Army in 2017 due to desertion. “I always drive the automobile to the recipient’s house after we steal one. We rob cars at random. We pull everyone who is parked and unconscious and quickly drive off. We use a local gun and operate in the Ajah neighborhood of Lagos. However, we never murdered our victims”.
The spokesperson for the Command recommended employers to use caution when employing drivers or domestic helpers and to run background checks at the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Alagbon, and the forensic unit’s Central Criminal Registry before hiring.
The suspects will face legal charges for their offenses, he continued.
