Three suspected armed robbers have confessed to allegedly terrorising motorists along the Ife Expressway in Osun State, including a robbery in which valuables estimated at N50m were reportedly stolen from a monarch.
Operatives of the Lagos State Police Command’s Anti-Kidnapping Unit arrested the suspects, identified as Chubuzor Anasihwe, 31, Uchena Steven, 26, and Ejike Ani, 31, at two different locations in Lagos, acting on actionable intelligence. They were said to have carried out the operations on August 23 and September 30, 2026, during which about five vehicles were reportedly snatched.
The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, Fatai Tijani, disclosed this on Wednesday during a briefing at the command headquarters in Ikeja. He said preliminary investigation linked the suspects to the robberies and that valuables worth approximately N50m were allegedly carted away.
One of the stolen vehicles, a Toyota van with registration number BDJ 180 AJ, Oyo State, has been recovered. According to the commissioner, the suspects made confessional statements and were assisting police to recover the other stolen vehicles, arrest other members of the gang and retrieve the weapons allegedly used.
Ani explained during questioning how the gang allegedly carried out the robbery. He said a gang member identified as Obina took them to the Ife Road area to snatch vehicles. They did not use a gun, he claimed, but bought cellotape and cut a stick, which they used instead.
He said the gang later came across the monarch after allegedly snatching a vehicle. According to him, they saw the king’s vehicle parked on the road and stopped, and Obinna took the king’s bag and put it inside their vehicle. When they reached Lagos, he dropped them off. Ani claimed they did not even know the bag was in the vehicle, adding that it was only after their arrest that police told them the king’s money had been found inside.
He said police were already tracking Obina and that he did not know his whereabouts. He did admit, however, that another gang member, identified as Izuna, had a locally made explosive device that was allegedly used during the operation. He said Izuna bought a banger and that police even found one inside the car.
Asked why he returned to robbery after previously serving a prison term, Ani said he wanted to raise money to start a business. He said he did not want to try such a thing again in his life, and added that he had earlier been involved in selling machine spare parts.
Giving an overview of the command’s operational successes within the period under review, Tijani said 80 suspects were arrested or neutralised and several exhibits recovered. These included six vehicles, four Beretta pistols, eight locally made pistols and four live 9mm rounds of ammunition. Other items were seven vehicle number plates, six mobile phones, vandalised iron materials and electrical wires, six battle axes, four cutlasses, one toy gun and five sacks of illicit drugs.
Police said investigation into the robbery case was ongoing, with efforts being made to apprehend other members of the gang and recover more stolen property.
