Akeem Popoola, 21, made the shocking confession in custody at the Agbado divison, Ogun State, after he was arrested for robbery and burglary. He said he had worked for Inspector Festus, aka Ijaya, attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja, for about four months before he was arrested.
He said Ijaya uses him to swindle unsuspecting victims. He revealed that apart from burglary, he used to collect phones from the inspector and he would later sell them, adding that Ijaya and two others – Abbey and Aluko – would get the buyers arrested minutes later for buying stolen items.
Akeem said their victims paid Ijaya between N120,000 and N150,000 before they were released, adding that he got N5,000 as his share on each deal. Akeem met Ijaya in November 2015, after him and one of his father’s tenants fought and his father handed me over to Ijaya at the state police command headquarters, Ikeja.
The father wanted him to be disciplined for being too troublesome. But Ijaya took him to a beer parlor at Alakuko and gave me N5,000, instead. Akeem added that: I was very surprised. Two days after, I was made to swear an oath. He brought out a gun and put some gin inside the barrel.
He drank from it and gave me the gun to do same. He said he would be sending me on some errands. And that’s how it all began.” He added that when he decided to quit, Ijaya refused. Ijaya threatened they had sworn an oath and that he would die if he backed out from the deal or revealed it to his father.
“I can say all this in his presence,” he added. His father, Ahmed Popoola, who took him to a police friend, Yekini, who handed him over to Ijaya with a belief that he (Akeem) will change if he sees the way thieves are being punished, is now regretting the move.
The spokesperson for the Ogun State Police Command, DSP Muyiwa Adejobi, said the police were on the trail of Ijaya and his accomplices. He added that the case had been transferred to the command’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad…. to honor d rare friendship between the duo…. Cc: Punchng
