LAGOS JUNE 27TH (URHOBOTODAY)-Fresh facts on Thursday emerged about the attack on four banks by a 19-man gang of robbers at the Ipakodo Ebute-Ogolonto area of Ikorodu, Lagos State, where millions of naira was carted away and gunshot injuries inflicted on civilians.
A police source said the supposed “lady” leader of the gang is actually a male who loves keeping long hair.
A police source said: “People have been saying and writing a lot of things, but the truth is that the gang is an all-male one.
“The ‘lady’, like other members of the gang, wore camouflage uniforms.
“It was because of his long hair and slim built that most people mistook him a lady.”
A police source said the gang that attacked the four banks was the same set that attacked two banks at the Ijede area of Ikorodu three weeks ago.
It was the same gang that stormed the First City Monument Bank Limited on Admiralty Way in the Lekki area on March 12.
They killed three policemen and a girl hawking fish.
The gang modus operandi had always been to sneak into targeted areas via water, use explosives to blast open bank doors and vaults and to escape through water, using speedboats.
These facts were however gotten by detectives attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command from a member of the gang, identified as Duke Odogbo, 38.
Odogbo, still in the custody of SARS, was among the 13 man-gang of robbers that attacked the bank at Admiralty Way in Lekki.
Days after the robbery, SARS operatives arrested him along with Lawrence Kingsley, 31; Ebi Tosan, 20; and Ekelemo Kuete, 30.
They were arrested in Delta, Ogun, Ondo and Lagos States.
In all the bank robberies, eyewitnesses had always mentioned a daring female gang member.
It was however Odogbo who told detectives that the gang member flaunting long hair was actually a male, not a female.
A police source said: “It’s the gang members of Odogbo that went for the Ijede and Wednesday bank robberies at Ikorodu.
“When Odogbo was arrested, other gang members were not arrested.
“The gang regrouped and is behind the Ijede and Ogolonto bank robberies.”
After attacking two banks at Ijede, the robbers had blared music from their car, dancing for not being challenged by the police.
They later escaped through the waterway.
A police source said: “We’ve recovered a plate number of one of the jeeps.
“Most believed that the cars used in Wednesday operation belonged to them, but it’s not true.
“In the Ijede operation, they stormed the shop of a car dealer, snatched two cars, which they used in the operation.
“On Wednesday, someone radioed the police that his car was snatched.
“The plate number belonged to the caller.
“The robbers also used two unregistered cars yesterday.
“We believe they snatched from a car dealer just as they did in the Ijede robbery.”