A six-man armed robbery gang led by a clearing gent arrested over the murder of a Nigeria Customs
Service (NCS) officer in front of the Tin Can Island Port, Lagos said they only wanted to rob the man of his belongings and not to kill him.
The victim, an Assistant Superintendent of Customs, Aliyu Adamu, was shot dead at the Tin-Can Island Port, Second Gate, on Thursday December 22, 2016.
The gang collected Adamu’s bag said to be containing money and other valuables after killing him. Informed of the crime, operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response
Team (IRT) led by Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Abba Kyari, swung into action and soon arrested the suspects.
In his confessional statement, Humphrey Aimodu, a clearing at the Tin Can Island Port, admitted organizing the gang that carried out the operation.
But Aimodu said that he only contracted the gang to rob Adamu and not to kill him.
“I specifically told my boys not to carry any guns during the operation,” he said.
The 33-year-old suspect, who hails from Edo State, said he conceived the robbery idea to raise some money to celebrate the last Christmas season.
Narrating how the plan to rob the Customs officer was hatched, Aimodu said, “It all started on December 20, 2016, when I was having a conversation with one of my colleagues, Edet Bassy. I told him how broke I was since we weren’t getting jobs as we used to. I told him I had no money to celebrate the Christmas with my family. He then suggested that we should rob ASC Aliyu.
“He told me that the man normally goes home daily with lots of money. He told me that he could not do the job because the man knew him and I also told him that the man knew me as well, then we settled that I should arrange some boys from the outside who would do the job.
“I then called one of my friends known as Samson, an Ilaje boy who lives in the Tolu area of Ajegunle, Lagos. He then linked me to one Abraham Lot, whom he said could do the job. By the evening of the next day, Lot sent two of his boys to me and he asked me to take them to the gate where the officer worked.”
Aimodu further said on December 22, 2016, about 9.00p.m., the boys called him to inform that the operation was successful and he should meet them at Tolu.
“When I got to the agreed venue, I saw over eight persons. It was there that I learnt there were gunshots at the robbery scene. When I enquired why they killed the man, I was told he struggled with them when they wanted to snatch the bag and they shot him on the leg. When they opened the bag I saw N500,000. I took N50,000.
“The next day I heard that the Customs officer was dead and that he was killed by armed robbers. I sensed trouble so I stopped going to work.
“On December 28, 2016, Samson called me and said the police had arrested some of the boys who carried out the robbery. He advised me not to go to Tin Can again as the police would be looking out for me. I went back home and moved my wife and children to Mowe Ibafo, where I was eventually arrested on January 2017,” he said.
Copyright 2016 Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.