Officers of the Nigeria Police Force have arrested three men who specialise in stealing from mourners in Lagos. The suspects, Mukaila Musibau, Olatunji Kayode, and Uche Mba, were arrested at about 7p.m. on Tuesday by officers of the Area F police station, Ikeja at the wake keeping ceremony of Moses Aboyede Pearce, 87, at his residence on Oluwole Street, Ikeja.
The suspects had successfully stolen seven mobile phones, wristwatches and other valuables from unsuspecting mourners at the event when the vigilant officers who were strategically positioned and acting on a tip-off arrested the suspects. The suspects had earlier that day robbed mourners at another funeral event which was held for late Veronica Ojo, who until her death was a pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God.
Modus operandi
The robbers' modus operandi, according to the police, involved gathering information from newspapers about big funeral events, dressing up as mourners or cameramen, and during prayer sessions, or whenever people were not watching, stealing from the mourners who were usually too filled with grief to notice any crime being committed around them. The suspects luck ran out when the officers who had been briefed on the new strategy being employed by the robbers by victims from other funeral events, swooped on them while they were picking mourners' pockets during the prayer session for the deceased.
Mr Mba one of the suspects said he usually pretended to be a camera man at funeral events.
"I pretend to be a video coverage man so I will be recording people," Mr Mba said. "But when they are not looking, I will pick their handsets and other valuables from the table. Other members of my gang will pretend to be camera men taking false pictures whereas their main aim is to steal from the mourners."
Mr Musibau, a second member of the gang said the robbers capitalized on the sad state of mind of the mourners.
"There are bigger guys in our syndicate who will come to the funeral wearing fine clothes and driving big cars but their aim is to rob the mourners. We know ourselves whenever we meet at such event," Mr Musibau further confessed.
Another member of the gang, Mr Olatunji, revealed how the gang obtained information about their victims.
"We read papers. Like the one we went to, we got the information of the deceased from the PUNCH newspaper on Monday. We will read the obituary pages and see big men funeral, so we will know that other big men will come so that is how we get information about our targets," he said.
Motorcycle thieves
In another development, the Alapere divison of the police command on Wednesday arrested four persons for armed robbery. The suspects, Seyi John, Wasiu Adeyemi, Ibrahim Buhari, and Michael Gbadamosi, were arrested in a Mosque located at number 6, Onalaoluwapo street, Alapere.
The suspects, accused of stealing motorcycles, were almost lynched by a mob which attacked them with cutlasses and other dangerous weapons before they were rescued by the police. The suspects denied the allegations.
"We were just sleeping in the mosque for safety when members of the public swooped on us with dangerous weapons calling us thieves," one of them said. "But we are not thieves. We were coming from Bariga late in the night so we decided to sleep in the mosque till the next day."
Police spokesperson, Samuel Jinadu, said the suspects will be charged to court after a thorough investigation.
Comments