Sunday, September 9, 2012, will remain indelible in the minds of some families in LagosState, who lost their loved ones to the brazen attack of a gang of heavily armed robbers, who laid siege to strategic points in the state, killing at least three policemen and several other citizens, while scores sustained injuries.
But the arrest of all the members of the gang that operated that day, including the notorious South-West robbery czar, Abiodun Ogunjobi, aka, Godogodo, would bring relief to relatives and friends of those killed or injured during the encounter.
Meanwhile, Godogodo, who was arrested by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, led by SP Abba Kyari, on August 1, 2013, has revealed how he coordinated the bloody operation. Bureaux de change robbery
He gave chilling details of how he led members of the gang to cart away millions of dollars from bureau de change operators in Agege and Gbagada areas of Lagos. According to Godogodo, “ On that fateful day, I called one of my boys, Sayeed Omolopa, to meet me at AlfaBeach in Ajah, and some other boys led by Kasali and Ejike. “They were about seven and my boys were five. Yemi Boss, who came with Ejike, said we should go to Agege and rob some bureau de change operators.
The agreement was that everyone will get what he lays his hands on. “We used two vehicles and over nine AK-47 rifles. When we got to Agege, some bureau de change operators that saw us ran to us thinking we wanted to change money and we opened fire on them and ran into their shops to pack all the money we found. “In fact, we robbed from shop to shop and we also shot sporadically to scare people. We shot at people who tried to block the road and prevent us from moving.
I can’t count the number of people killed in that operation. “Wherever people tried to block the road, we opened fire on them. The boys that went with me for that job were notorious, they were difficult to control but they all feared me. We made a lot of money from the operation “While we were trying to escape, we met a team of policemen attached to the Rapid Response Squad, RRS, and we thought they were after us.
On approaching them, we opened fire on the van and killed all the police in it and collected their rifles and escaped through Lagos-Abekuta road. “Money was not shared after the operation because everyone took whatever he was able to grab. When I got home I realised that I made over N500,000, but some days later, I was informed that one of my boys, Tosin, made over N6 million from the operation.
“Everybody made a lot of money from the operation. I didn’t border to read the newspapers the next day to know the extent of damage but I knew many people lost their lives in that operation. You know, as robbers, we do not go for operations to kill but we kill when we don’t have option.” Why we killed policemen Godogodo also narrated how he and members of his gang killed four policemen at Ajah, in February 2013, snatching three AK-47 rifles from them.
He said he killed the policemen because he wanted to recover his nine rifles seized by the SARS operatives from one of his boys, Tosin. Narrating the incident, Godogodo said: “After SARS operatives collected nine of my rifles, I was left with only two AK-47 rifles and a pump action rifle. “On that fateful day, we went to rob residents of Awoyaya area in Ajah. I was with Odun, Oluwole,Yinusa and Sayeed Omolopa.
“We robbed house-to-house and on our way home, we saw a police van and a policeman behind the van was sleeping, Odun suggested that we attack them and collect their rifles and I obliged. “We drove a Sports Utility Van and approached them, opened fire on the patrol van and it veered off the road. We went after it and killed all the policemen in the van and collected their rifles. After that operation, we went to AlfaBeach to cool off.” The Abule Egba killings Godogodo also narrated how he killed a Police Inspector and a corporal at Abule Egba area of Lagos.
According to him, “Ife and Oleh brought the job, they told me that we should go and rob a man who had just returned from London with huge sums of money and some drugs. “We went to his house and discovered that he was not at home and we left in annoyance and went on to rob some people from house-to-house.
“On our way out, we spotted some policemen at Oko-Oba police station, they didn’t know that we were robbers. We killed them before collecting their rifles. “Some few months later, we snatched a white Range Rover Sport in Ikeja and two of the occupants escaped with their phones.
“We suspected that they were going to call the police. On arriving Agidingbi Road, we spotted two RRS men on a motorbike and we thought they were coming after us. We slowed down, by the time they got very close to us, I opened the window and fired rapid shots at them, they fell into the gutter with their motorbike and I sent my boys to get their rifles before we drove off. “When we got to Coca-Cola junction, there was serious traffic and we decided to make a turn. When we got to the spot where the policemen fell, we saw some people who were trying to help them and my boys opened fire on them again.
“We managed to make our way to Medical Road, close to ComputerVillage, but by then, the policemen there had received message of our operations and the moment they sighted us, they opened fire and damaged our tyres. “We managed the tyres up to Capitol Road. There was traffic and I came out of my vehicle to clear the traffic and there was this Toyota Camry following us.
I didn’t know that there was an armed mobile policeman in it. When I returned I discovered that Kasali was struggling with the mobile policeman who was carrying a rifle. “I fired some shots at the policeman. He attempted to run away, I chased him and killed him on the spot before picking his rifle. We snatched another vehicle and abandoned the Range Rover Sport before we escaped.”
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