The Lagos State Police Command has arrested three soldiers at the Obanikoro area of the metropolis for armed robbery.

The three suspects, who were alleged to have been arrested in full military uniform and were armed with a dagger. The three men, who were arrested on 3rd of December, were further alleged to specialise in targeting and robbing drivers with broken trucks and containers.

A source said: “They were arrested as early as 5:a.m. by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Somolu Police Station. Before the arrest of the soldiers, the DPO had been receiving a series of complaints from commuters and motorists that military men used to rob them. There had also been complaints of passers -bye being attacked and robbed and owners of broken down vehicles robbed at night, also by military men.”

On the fateful day of the suspects’ arrest, a distressed woman was said to have dashed into the office of the DPO, screaming that robbers in uniform were operating at Obanikoro.

The woman insisted that she was robbed and that she saw the soldiers robbing a driver. The DPO quickly gathered his men and they raced to the scene.

“On getting to the scene, the DPO and his men saw three men in full military uniform. They were actually robbing a driver of a broken down truck. The truck had developed fault, thus the driver had to park at Obanikoro to seek solution. The DPO and his men tried to arrest the soldiers, but they put up a struggle until they were overpowered by the policemen,” said the source.

The three suspects were taken to the station and a dagger was recovered from them. The driver told police that the soldiers took N40, 000 from a woman that was passing by and were forcing him to submit N100, 000 before the arrival of the DPO and his men.

The source said: “They asked the driver to give them N100,000, he said he didn’t have such an amount of money with him. They were searching him when the DPO and his men got there. The soldiers operate using a motorcycle. Police have recovered the motorcycle from them. Police also recovered their identity cards from them.”

Preliminary investigation showed that one of the suspects, Corporal Kaduru Sani, is attached to Air force Base in Lagos State, while his colleagues are from military base in Ilorin, Kwara State.

The two suspects from Ilorin said that they came to visit Sani. They denied being robbers, insisting that they were just looking for means to raise money to feed.

“They further explained that they only used the dagger to threaten people, not that they wanted to hurt anyone,” said the source. (New Telegraph)

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