Two former despatch riders with an online trading platform have been arrested by the operatives of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command, while attempting to rob an Uber driver of his vehicle in Anthony Village area of the state.
The two suspects are Sule Abdulkareem, 29 and Celestine Joseph, both confessed to have attempted to rob the driver claiming they had wanted to use the vehicle as collateral for a loan to start up a business.
The duo was arrested by SARS operatives at Anthony- Oke area of the state, when they were looking for a more deserted part of the area to launch an attack on the driver.
It was gathered that the two suspects had initially attempted to rob the driver at Anthony Bus Stop but the driver, sensing danger, drove to the point, where they were intercepted by the SARS operatives.
A source at Lagos SARS said that they were looking for a deserted place to carry out the operation, when operatives intercepted them.
“They had wanted to rob the driver of the vehicle at Anthony Bus Stop, but the driver did not stop”, the source said”
One of the suspects, Abulkareem said “It was an unfortunate incident. We initially wanted to rob him, but when he did not stop, we have to jettison the idea, before we were arrested by the police.”
He said: “My friend, Celestine needed N1.6 to start up a business and we looked everywhere for loan but there was nobody to give us.
“It was while we were looking for loan that somebody told us that we would need collateral to get a loan. We had wanted to use that Toyota Corolla as our collateral to get the money; unfortunately we were unable to rob the driver of his car.
“I met Celestine, when we were both dispatch riders at Jumia. We were very close then. I left because the company was deducting illegal money from my salary, even after I had paid fully for the motorcycle that was given to me.
“He also said that when my friend left, he told me that he wanted to start up a restaurant and bar business on the Island and that he needed N1.6million for the business. We both agreed to rob the driver. It was an unfortunate incident.
“The other suspect, Joseph also said the gun that was recovered from us belong to one of our friends He is no more in Lagos We were using it to protect ourselves from hoodlums in Apapa, when we were working there.
“I ordered for the Uber vehicle to come and pick us from Keffi in Obalande to Maryland .We planned to snatch the vehicle from him before he would get to Maryland, but we wanted to stop him at Anthony bus stop, he refused. Maybe he was afraid that the place was deserted.
“When he did not stop, we decided not to rob him again but we were later arrested by policemen, who recovered our pistol from us.”
The commissioner of police, CP Hakeem Odumosu, while speaking on the arrest of the suspects, reiterated the commitment of the police in the state to rid Lagos of criminals and other vices.