One armed robbery suspect, Jide Abass, 45, pictured right, who
was arrested alongside his accomplice -Lukmon Bello, while they were
attempting to rob outside a bank in Ogun state on Monday May 11th, said
during his interrogation by the Ogun state police command, that the
cashless policy introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria has affected
the operations of armed robbers in Nigeria. According to him, people do
not move around with large sums of money anymore as they now go about
paying for things with their debit cards.
"We
usually laid ambush for bank customers, especially those who had gone
to withdraw money. It is not difficult to notice them. For the men, it
is either their pockets would be bulging or they would come out with the
usual black nylon. For customers who came in their vehicles, we would
either ambush them or trail them to safer places where we would collect
the withdrawn amount. But since the introduction of cashless policy,
people don’t usually got out with cash. Even when they go to eateries
or super markets, they make use of POS and this has been affecting our
operations. We started operating in Ikorodu, Lagos State but since the police
seem to have braced up to the challenge, we decided to relocate to Ogun
State. This is our fourth operation here. I am ashamed of myself because
my two wives may likely divorce me if they find out their husband is a
robber,” he said.
His other partner, Lukman said he was a
clothier before he resorted to armed robbery due to his inability to
fend for his two wives and children
"I
was initially into international trade. I usually travelled to Dubai
to buy men’s clothes to sell until the trade crumbled. I had also
travelled to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, twice, to perform Holy Pilgrimage.
While the going was good, I got married to two wives. But along the
line, my business crumbled and I started driving commercial bus. At a
point, I could barely feed my family. In the process, I met Jide Abass,
who introduced me to robbery. On that fateful day, we
left Ikorodu where we live, to Abeouta to
operate. It was Jide who suggested we went far to operate to avoid being
recognised during operation. We trailed this particular man to
Oke-Ilewo. We saw him counting some money and kept some in the safe
of his car. We did not know he would not stay long inside the office he
entered. We were busy ransacking his vehicle for the money he left and
never noticed him coming out until he was close. As we attempted to
enter our car and flee he pulled out a pistol and shot me in the thigh.
I managed to hop into my Mercedez benz car which was used for the
operation and sped off towards Ibara Housing en-route Kuto
(Abeokuta)/Isiun Expressway. But I became unconscious as a result of
loss of blood and in the process ran into an oncoming vehicle on
reaching the Ogun State NUT Conference Hall junction, close to MKO
Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta. Some good Samaritans who did not know what
actually happened came to
our rescue and rushed us to the Federal Medical Centre,FMC, Idi-Aba,
Abeokuta, for treatment. But to our surprise, the man who shot me
located us and arrested us. It was after we were arrested that we
discovered that he was a policeman. My wives and children are not aware
I have been arrested. Greed lured me into this”. he said
Source:
Vanguard
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