Police arrest ‘killers’ of Newswatch deputy editor

Operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos state police command have arrested four out of the six-man gang that murdered Toyin Obadina, deputy editor of Daily Newswatch Newspaper.

The suspects who were identified as Adeshina Festus, Babatunde Makinde, Sunday Samuel and Ibrahim Adeokin, were arrested at their hideout at Ajelogo, Akanimodo area of Mile 12, Lagos in a raid led by Abba Kyari, a superintendent of police.

The police recovered two locally-made, single-barrel cut-to-size short guns, 12 rounds of live carriage, one Nissan Xtera with registration number LSD 780 BJ and one Toyota Yaris Salon car No. AKD 791 CE from the suspects.

Parading the suspects on Tuesday before journalists, Kayode Aderanti, the state commissioner of police, said he received intelligence on October 17, of the activities of an armed robbery gang that was perfecting its plans to invade Lagos highways.

“Based on this information, I immediately directed the command’s Anti Robbery Squad led by Abba Kyari (SP) to go after the robbers and within a short space of time, the team of crack detectives located the said hideout around Ajelogo/Akanimdo area of mile 12 area of Lagos State and succeeded in arresting two members of the gang,” Aderanti said.

“When a search was conducted on the suspects and their hideout, my men recovered two cut-to-size, locally-made, single-barrel short guns with 12 rounds of live cartridges.

“The robbers, during interrogation, confessed that they belonged to a six-man gang of armed robbers that had been terrorising the metropolis.

“They also confessed that on February 1, 2014 at about 1.30am, they killed the owner of a Toyota Yaris saloon car with Registration No AKD 701, which they snatched after snuffing out the life of the owner. They later abandoned the vehicle and the lifeless body, which later turned out to be the late Mr. Toyin Obadina of the Daily Newswatch.”

One of the suspects, Adeshina, said the gang leader, Oke, who pulled the trigger on Obadina, and his deputy, Benjamin, were later killed by men of the SARS in another operation around the mile 12 area of Lagos.

Samuel, another suspect, said in his confessional statement that he saw the late Obadina grab the shirt of the late Oke.

“We are a six-man armed robbery gang. We usually attack our victims while in traffic along Shagamu Road, Ikorodu Road and Itamaga road. On the day of the incident, we had gone out on our regular operations in two vehicles, a Toyota Sienna and a Toyota Camry.

“We were driving toward Lucky Fibre area of Ikorodu when we sighted a Toyota Yaris saloon car. At the time of the incident we did not know that the owner of the car was a journalist.

“Adeshina, who was driving the Sienna car, blocked the Toyota Yaris car while Oke and Babatunde came down and headed toward the vehicle. Babatunde grabbed the laptop bag that was kept at the back seat of the car, while Oke snatched the phones that were by the driver’s side.

“Our victim grabbed Oke’s shirt, which angered our leader. He then pulled his gun and shot the man at close range and we zoomed off. We never knew that the man is a journalist when we attacked him.”

Narrating how he was arrested, Samuel said he went back to his work as a bus conductor at Mile 12 garage when some policemen from SARS stormed the place and arrested him.

Aderanti, the commissioner of police, said the suspects would soon be charged to court after investigations are concluded.