End of the Road for Lagos Gangsters

Femi Ogbonnikan writes on the arrest of members of a notorious gang who have their various hideouts at Igando, Iba and LASU areas of Lagos

Nemesis has finally caught up with a 27-year-old dreaded cultist who has been terrorising residents of Igando, Iba and LASU environs in recent times. The suspect, Nurudeen Kazeem (aka Onyabo), a tailor cum Okada rider by profession, was picked up recently by an intelligence network (decoy) team of armed policemen attached to the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command at a hideout in Igando, in Ojo Local Government Area, an outskirt of Lagos.

Nuru, as he is fondly referred, a notorious member of the Eiye Confraternity, had been on the wanted list of the Lagos State Police Command, for allegedly shooting a police Sergeant attached to the RRS in the right leg, about a month ago when the operatives of the squad wanted to effect the arrest of members of an armed robbery gang who attacked and robbed a dispatch rider attached to Samsung Nigeria Limited who was on an errand to deliver a handset to the person who ordered for it, at Igando.

With the aid of tracking devices, it was gathered, the mobile phone number of the notorious suspect was tracked, thus, culminating in his arrest. It would be recalled about a month ago, the quartet of Wilfred Ehis (a.k.a California), Kamilu Olanrewaju, Elohor and Emeka, were arrested by the RRS decoy team at their hideouts in Igando in connection with the attack on the Samsung Nigeria Limited dispatch rider, before their subsequent transfer to the operatives attached to the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) of the Lagos State Police Command, on the orders of the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni.

Following the manhunt for Nuru, the Okada rider, it was learnt, that the confessions of Sunday Hassan (a co-Okada rider) and another person who is a member of the ACCOMORAN in the Igando area aided the detectives in their investigation, thus, leading to the arrest of the suspect.

According to the 27-year-old suspect, he confessed to be working for Wilfred Ehis, popularly referred to as ‘Cali’, a notorious yahoo boy.

“Before I was engaged by “Cali” two years ago, Cali already had a guy that was working for him. His name is Sunday Hassan. He is also an Okada operator. Cali is a big yahoo boy. He has a large number of SIM cards and he

would place order to some of the online mobile sets dealers, like Jiji, Samsung, Konga, Jumia and a host of others. Cali would call us whenever he had placed an online order and get one of these dispatch riders who has agreed to come and deliver the handsets.

Ours is to ambush, beat to a pulp and dispossess the dispatch rider of the handsets at gunpoint,” said Nuru.

On how he got initiated into the Eiye Confraternity, “I am an okada operator. I am a father of two children. About two years ago, I was at our “tarmac” in Igando when one Saheed, a notorious Eiye Confraternity member walked up to me and five other co-riders. Saheed told us, that he and his friends were going to a new developing site within Igando,
for a new christening. That we would convey them there.

“We embarked on the journey but when we got mid-way where it was bushy, Saheed commandeered us to stop at gunpoint. He pulled out a gun and ordered us to go through a bushy path. We obliged and went straight therein where we met some people there. Some who were waiting to be initiated were on one side, while on the other side, they were Saheed’s men, who were to initiate us. We were inside the bush for a night. We were beaten thoroughly and taught how to handle guns and in shooting.

“At that point there, I was assigned the task of a hit man. I was given a locally made gun. But before I was given the gun, they threatened to kill me and my wife if I missed the targets. The following day, I was asked to go to a hideout belonging to members of a rival group, Black Axe Confraternity, to launch an attack on them. Two leaders of the rival gro