Police arrest trader, wife for armed robbery

The police in Lagos have arrested a man who
deals in men’s wear, Akeem Ariyo, for allegedly
robbing a shop on Ariyo Street, in the Balogun
Market area of Lagos.
It was learnt that the 35-year-old suspect was
arrested along with his wife, Mosunmola, on July
14, 2015, but the wife was freed the following
day.
The police alleged that Ariyo and others at large
burgled the shop owned by one Kudirat Akinyede,
said to be the wife of a police officer, between
10pm of June 9 and 6am of June 7, carting away
gold jewellery and cash sum, all estimated at
N11.6m.
We  gathered that the security guards
attached to the market were also apprehended in
connection with the crime, but were later released
after they were interrogated.
The police said the suspect confessed to the
crime after he was transferred to the Special Anti-
Robbery Squad in Ikeja. But Mosunmola, quoted
her husband as saying that he did so under
duress.
“Officers at SARS said he had confessed. But
when I asked him, he said he had suffered a lot;
there are bruises all over his body,” she added.
Mosunmola told our correspondent that the
suspect had visited his parents, who live near the
burgled shop, and was bathing on the premises in
the midnight when he saw some men in black
dresses. He reportedly ran inside, leaving his
phone on a bench.
It was learnt that policemen attached to the Lion
Building Police Division, later called Mosunmola
with her husband’s phone, and traced them to
their residence in Ikorodu.
She said the police ransacked their house and
took her jewellery box to the station, where
Akinyede was asked to identify whether they were
hers.
She said, “On June 14, somebody called me that
he found my husband’s phone. I gave the caller
our address to bring it. Suddenly, a team of
policemen stormed our house. They searched our
house and took us to the station.
“At the station, my gold trinket was shown to the
woman, but she could not find her own there.
They later returned the box to me.”
Also, a resident, Rasheed Smith, said he, Ariyo
and other friends had parted around 11pm on
June 9, adding that he had made a statement at
the police station in respect of the incident.
He said, “Akeem (Ariyo) had come to visit his
parents on the fateful day. He, his sibling and I
were outside chatting that day until around 11pm
when we left for our respective houses. In the
morning, he told me what he saw while he was
bathing, adding that he could not find his phone.
“I was surprised when I learnt he was arrested for
robbery. I was invited to the police station and I
made a statement. I think the police need to do a
thorough investigation because the woman’s shop
was looted again a week after the first incident.”
However, the police arraigned Ariyo before an
Ikeja Magistrate’s Court on two counts bordering
on armed robbery.
The charges read, “That you, Akeem Ariyo, and
others still at large, between 10pm and 6am of
June 9 and 10, on Ariyo Street, in the Lagos
Magisterial District, did conspire to commit felony
to wit; armed robbery.