Pic: Meet The Young Lagos Armed Robber That Works For A Police Inspector

This 21-year-old suspected robber pictured
above, Akeem Popoola, says a police inspector
attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of
the Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja, uses
him to swindle unsuspecting victims.
He said he had worked for the policeman,
identified as Inspector Festus, aka Ijaya, for
about four months before he was arrested.The
carpenter, who is currently in custody at the
Agbado divison, Ogun State, was arrested for
robbery and burglary. A mattress and speakers
of a sound system were reportedly recovered
from him in the Giwa area of Agbado on April 6.
He told PUNCH Metro that apart from burglary,
he used to collect phones from the inspector
and he would later sell them.
He added that Ijaya and two others – Abbey and
Aluko – would get the buyers arrested minutes
later for buying stolen items.Akeem said their
victims paid Ijaya between N120,000 and
N150,000 before they were released, adding that
he got N5,000 as his share on each ‘deal’.
''In November 2015, one of my father’s
tenants and I fought. When my daddy came
back home on that day, she reported me to him
and he handed me over to Inspector Festus at
the state police command headquarters, Ikeja.
He told him I was too troublesome and wanted
him to discipline me. But he (Ijaya) did not. He
took me to a beer parlor at Alakuko and gave
me N5,000. I was very surprised.
''Two days after, we met at another beer
parlour around Agbado, where I was made to
swear an oath. He brought out a gun and put
some gin inside the barrel. He drank from it and
gave me the gun to do same.
''He said he would be sending me on some
errands. He gave me a mobile phone and drove
me in his Toyota Camry to POWA complex in
Ikeja.
''He told me to sell the phone inside the
complex which I did for N20,000. After an hour,
he handcuffed me and took me in his car with
his boys – Abbey and Aluko – to the man that
bought the phone. He arrested the man and told
him to pay N200,000 if he did not want to be
taken to the station. The man raised N150,000
among his friends in that complex and gave
him.
''When we left there, he removed the
handcuffs and gave me N5,000 and we
departed.''
He said the second deal he had with Ijaya was
an iPad he sold to another unsuspecting victim
around Ikeja. He said he got a N5,000 share
from the N150,000 bribe the inspector allegedly
collected from the buyer, who was also accused
of acquiring stolen property.
He added that when he decided to quit, Ijaya
refused.
Akeem said that Ijaya threatened they had
sworn an oath and that he would die if he
backed out from the deal or revealed it to his
father.
''Sometime in February, the inspector gave me
a Techo phone which I sold to a guy at Agbado.
The guy gave me N7,000 and a small phone.
Thirty minutes later, we went back with my
hands handcuffed. And as he normally did, he
collected about N120,000 from him before he
was released. I also got my N5,000 share. I can
say all this in his presence.'' He added.
Akeem said he had stolen a plasma television at
Oke Aro area of Agbado on the order of Ijaya,
insisting that the item was still with the
policeman.
His father, Mr. Ahmed Popoola, who regretted
handing him over to the policeman, said his son
was a thief before he took him to Ijaya for
discipline.
He said he strove to meet Akeem's needs and
had counselled him on several occasions to no
avail.
''He had been stealing before I took him to a
police friend, Yekini, who handed him over to
Ijaya with a belief that he (Akeem) will change if
he sees the way thieves are being punished. He
had been embarrassing me. He still has a case
in the Sango-Ota division. I was arrested and
detained because of him.
''When he finished his secondary school, he
told me he did not want to proceed to a higher
institution. I enrolled him as an apprentice in my
carpentry workshop and constructed a wooden
shop for him when he graduated. He removed all
the planks I used to construct the shop and sold
them. Let the law take its course.''
The spokesperson for the Ogun State Police
Command, DSP Muyiwa Adejobi, said the police
were on the trail of Ijaya and his accomplices.
He added that the case had been transferred to
the command's Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
He said, 'The suspect was arrested for robbery
and burglary. He mentioned Ijaya and some
others and we have commenced investigation. If
any of them is actually a policeman, we are
going to send a signal to the command he is
attached to and he will be arrested.''
But the Lagos State Police spokesperson, SP
Dolapo Badmos, denied that Ijaya was a serving
cop in the command.
''We don't have a policeman bearing Festus or
Ijaya in the command.'' She said.