We showed him gun and he surrender his car key – Suspect
“We just showed him Gun and he surrendered his car key, thank God he complied, otherwise he would have been a dead man” Those were the words of a car snatching kingpin, Isaiah Inyang from Akwa Ibom State, who is now in Police net following a botched operation. Isaiah who has been arrested by the police along with two others whom the police said ‘are part and parcel of the crime in a confessional statement, said bad friends pushed him to commit the crime. According to him, all the cars he steals from Nigeria are sold in Cotonou, stressing that that country is a major market for stolen cars. He reeled out several crimes committed by him and his group in this chat with Lagos Weekend How did you get into robbery? It is bad friends that pushed me into it. It is bad company I think. Where do u normally sell the stolen car? We have our people at Contonou border. When you take a car there they will buy it immediately, especially if the car is very clean and one of the latest models.

Do they give you the model of the car they want? Yes, sometimes if they have customer who needs a particular brand of car they will call us. If we don’t know the exact brand, they will send the photographs to us and we’ll then look out for it. And we must target the owner to the end. If we don’t succeed we keep an eye on where the person lives, definitely we must get it when he opens his gate either when he leaves his compound or returning home. How do you get your victims to surrender their vehicles? It is very simple, we only tap their vehicles and show them gun, then we give orders like, we say, wind down or I blow your head up, but sometimes, get down, don’t move or I finish you, when they see gun they will naturally comply. What if they don’t? Ha! then the person is looking for trouble because he can be shot.

Who does the shooting? The fellow is on the run, Ndubuisi is our marksman. How were you arrested? We went to Yaba area as usual, we saw that car (pointing at a Toyota Avalon car), the owner was coming out of a shop at a location called Underground, very close to UNILAG, he entered his car and we showed him gun and he surrendered his key; thank God he did. We sped off with the car and we ran into traffic along Palm grove area, then two others decided to go down but me (Isaiah) went with the car and we were intercepted by the Police at Onipanu. We were unable to explain who owns the car, we were arrected. If you were successful how much would have sold the car? You know, this is business, the buyer knows that that they are stolen cars, so we negotiate but I can tell you that we have missed real cool money, that car is very clean it would have fatched us closed to at least N800,000.00. What of now that you have been arrested? Well, we have to face it squarely.

Mr. Lekan Owolabi, the owner of the recovered car, recalled how the robbers attempted to rob him of his car while he stopped to buy bread at a shop in Yaba area.. “I stoped to buy bread along the University of Lagos (Unilag) Road, that was about 8:10pm. at a place called underground when I entered into my car after buying the bread, I noticed two people by my door side. they asked me to surrender my car. I turned, I saw two others, making them four, two of them took possession and at my front door, they showed me a gun, they ordered me to wind down my glass, or they would blow my head off. I surrendered the car key to them and they sped off with the car. I thank God I did not behave silly. what if I had refused to heed their request, would I have lived to recover the car today?” he queried. Meanwhile, Imo Udo, the youngest among the gang, denied his involvement in the crime. According to him, he is a second hand clothe seller at Yaba and he was picked up in the house of Isaiah when the Police went there for investigation.

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