The police in Lagos are on the trail of
some suspected robbers, who allegedly hijacked a tanker laden with
33,000-litre fuel valued at N4.5m on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The robbers were also said to have abducted the vehicle’s escort, Shittu Oluwasegun.
It was learnt that the product was to be
delivered to a filling station in Ore, Ondo State, before the tanker
was hijacked in the Sagamu, Ogere, Ogun State end of the expressway.
The police said a man, identified simply
as Lateef, from whom the tanker was hired to transport the fuel,
allegedly connived with the robbers.
Our correspondent gathered that the
owner of the product, Muyideen Adebayo, had sometime in September,
rented the tanker for N170,000 through one Muyideen Abdulhameed and
Tunde Adeleke, who reportedly presented themselves as managers.
The robbers, who were reportedly five in
number, including Lateef, ambushed the tanker driver and the escort,
Oluwasegun, around 7.30pm on the expressway.
They allegedly hijacked the tanker and whisked Oluwasegun away in a car.
“When we got to Ogere, Lateef stopped
the driver and said he was the owner of the tanker. He left with the
driver for about an hour before they came back.
“Immediately the driver and I entered
the vehicle to continue our journey, a car waylaid us. One of the
occupants pointed a gun at me, forced me into the car and drove off.
Lateef was among them. They later dropped me off near a bush after
collecting my mobile phone,” Oluwasegun told the police.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the
case was reported at the Trinity Police Station and referred to the
Special Ant-Robbery Squad, Ikeja, leading to the managers’ arrest.
One of the suspects, Adeleke, said, “I
don’t know anything about the robbery. I am a truck driver. Muyideen
(Abdulhameed) told me that he rented out tankers. Mr. Adebayo met with
me and said he needed a tanker to transport fuel to Ore. I introduced
him to Muyideen and they discussed. He paid N100,000 in advance.”
Abdulhameed, who is also a truck driver,
said, “I don’t have any truck or tanker. The tanker in question is
owned by Lateef and I rented it from him for that trip. When I was told
that the tanker had been stolen, I immediately called him but he didn’t
pick my calls. He later switched off his phone.
“I don’t know where he lives. We met at a prison in Ogun State.”
The two suspects were subsequently
brought before an Ikeja Magistrate’s Court by a police prosecutor,
Inspector Benedict Aigbokhan, on three counts bordering on conspiracy
and robbery.
The charges read in part, “That you,
Muyideen Abdulhameed, Tunde Adeleke and others at large, on September 9,
2016, at about 7.30pm along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in the Ikeja
Magisterial District, while armed with a gun and other weapons did
kidnap one Shittu Oluwasegun, the escort in charge of a Daf tanker with
number plate, AAA871XB, loaded with 33,000 litres of petrol, thereby
committing an offence contrary to Section 269 (1) and punishable under
Section 269 (3) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.”
The defendants pleaded not guilty to the
charges and were granted bail by the presiding magistrate, Mrs. O.
Olanipekun, in the sum of N500,000 with two sureties each in like sum.
The case was adjourned till November 17, 2016.
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