Three ex-convicts yesterday again ran into trouble following their arrest for alleged traffic robber

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Three ex-convicts yesterday again ran into trouble following their arrest for alleged traffic robbery at oshodi, Lagos.

Mustapha Adekunle, 21, Olumide Popoola, 20 and Femi Amusa, 20, were arrested by Rapid Response Squad (RRS) operatives following a tip-off by their victim, Olasunkanmi Oyelakin.

The victim said his blackberry phone was stolen by the suspects during early morning traffic rush around Bolade, Oshodi.

He said: “I was on my way to Ajah at 6:30am, I saw Adekunle pass by the bus I boarded. Unknown to me, he was monitoring me. A few minutes later, I noticed a missed call on my phone, and as I brought out the phone, he took the phone from me through the window and ran away. Because there was traffic, I made no attempt to struggle with him, but got down from the nearest bus-stop and I began to monitor him. I noticed that he had regrouped with his friends and one of them was telling him to hand over the phone he stole from me.

“I knew I couldn’t handle the three of them all alone, so I informed the RRS operatives who followed me to the place where he was arrested.”

Adekunle said he was driven by frustration to steal the handset.

“I am a bus conductor in Oshodi. I am from Ibadan and a secondary school dropout. I sleep in Ojuwoye, Mushin. I am an ex–convict. I don’t want to go to prison again. Government should please have mercy on me. I was frustrated into traffic robbery. I won’t do it again,” he pleaded.

Popoola and Amusa denied being in-traffic robbers.

“We were in Lagos to make money to buy working tools having completed our apprenticeship,” Popoola said.

The RRS has also recovered a locally-made gun with a cartridge in Surulere, Lagos Mainland.

The gun was recovered around 2:00am during the RRS patrol of Iganmu Bridge by the Nigerian Breweries Complex.

The patrol team had spotted three on the bridge. On sighting the police, the men fled.

During a search of where they were standing, a locally-made short gun was found with an unspent cartridge.

Police spokesman Joe Offor, a Deputy Superintendent (DSP), said the suspects had been charged to court.

Source: The Nation