Segun Atanda/
Five men have been held by the police over alleged plans to raid five banks on June 1 and the kidnapping of six students in Lagos last week.
According to the police, the suspects belonged to a militant gang led by a man called ‘America’.
The arrests were made amid reports that a notorious cult group, that usually wipe out families in Ikorodu, struck again killing a family of five including a pregnant woman at Itamaga, in the Ikorodu area of Lagos.
Reports say the cult members killed the pregnant woman, opened up her womb and went away with the foetus. The family member, an SS3 student, who survived the attack, is battling for life at a specialist hospital in the state.
According to media reports on May 12, four members of the Badoo gang were lynched by angry mob.
They were allegedly apprehended following the murder of a family of four in the Oke-Igbodo, Adamo area of Ikorodu.
The police have linked the gang to many ritual murders and rape in the Ikorodu area.
On Monday, April 17, 2017, the gang was linked to the murder of a family of three, comprising the father, Lucky Ebhodaghe, his wife – Margaret, and their 15-year-old son, Jonathan, who was preparing for his West African Secondary School Certificate examination.
On Tuesday, May 2, 2017, the Badoo gang was fingered in the murder of a couple, Taofiq and Simiat Agbaje and two of their children, Rodiat and Toyeebat. They were allegedly hacked to death in their home near Adeke Bus stop, Adamo, in Imota area of the state.
In a statement from police authorities on the latest arrest, the suspects were accused of planning to raid five banks and the kidnapping of six students last week at Model College, in Epe, Lagos.
They were arrested by the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) deployed to Lagos by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim K Idris, to neutralize the threat posed by the gang.
The police identified the suspects arrested in Ikorodu and Ajah areas of Lagos as: 38-year-old Abiodun Olaroye aka Gbeleju – a native of Ode Kreme village in Ondo State; Ebipatgh Tuwei aka Segun, 47, a native of Arobo, in Ondo State; Benjamin Powei aka Ben, 42, a native of Arogbo, in Ondo State, who allegedly participated in the killing of four policemen and army captain in Ikorodu last month; Samuel Chinedu, 30, aka Hit Man, a native of Ika North in Delta State; Ikechukwu Samuel Innocent aka IK, 33, a native of Isiagwu Village in Abia State, who was identified as a security man in one of the targeted banks.
The police told Newsmakersng: “Four of the arrested suspects are militants sent by their gang leader, America, to survey the banks and hire two operational buses to convey the militants to and from the river bank to the banks.
“The fifth suspect is a security man in one of the targeted banks including GTB, FCMB, and Keystone banks.
“All the banks were chosen because of their Proximity to the river banks according to the militants arrested. All suspects arrested confessed to the planned bank robberies and confirmed that they were sent by their boss in the creek.
“America fixed Wednesday 1/6/17 as the date for the attacks on the banks before his boys were arrested by IRT. Suspects are cooperating with detectives in the Investigation. Serious efforts to arrest the gang-leader, America, and other gang-members and rescue of the school children are in progress.”
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