A 24-year-old armed robbery suspect, John Zion, has told the police that a former secondary school mate introduced him to crime in return for shelter and food that he offered him.
The police told our correspondent yesterday that Zion said during investigation that he became homeless when his father kicked him out of the house, allegedly acting on the instruction of his stepmother.
The suspect, who the police arrested along with two others for allegedly attacking residents of Awoyaya in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos State, was said to have confessed in his statement saying, “I began sleeping in markets and mechanic workshops as a result of my father’s action. I met a lot of under-aged children there, some of who had run away from home, like me, and had nowhere to go.
“I got to know what hunger really is while living on the streets. It was during this period that I met Ola. We were mates in secondary school. He dropped out of school in JSS 3. He took me to a wooden house by the beach side at Ibeju-Lekki.
“I ate home-cooked food there for the first time since I left home.
“He promised to get me a job. It was in the second week that I was with him that I got to know that he and four others were into crime. I had participated in many robberies with the gang before I was arrested.”
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Bala Elkana, told our correspondent that policemen from the Elemoro police station arrested the suspect, and two others on June 6, 2020.
Elkana said at about 10.20 pm on that day, the police received information from a reliable source that a group of robbers had been sighted opposite the Mayfair Garden area of Awoyaya, Ibeju-Lekki, robbing residents.
He said acting on the information, operatives from Elemoro Division and those from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad swiftly mobilised to the scene.
“On sighting the operatives, the robbers started firing and the operatives engaged them. Four suspects were arrested. They are Rasheed Odetola, 24; John Zion, 22; Damilare Salami, 20; and Adeboye Dayo, 25. They confessed to be among the robbers that had been terrorising residents of Awoyaya and its environs.
“Items recovered from them included a cut-to-size locally made pistol with four live cartridges and a Tecno phone they snatched from a victim,” he added.
