Trader, wife arrested for armed robbery

A Lagos based trader, Akeem Ariyo and his wife, Mosunmola, has been arrested by the state Police Command for allegedly robbing a shop on Ariyo Street, in the Balogun Market area of Lagos.

The 35-year-old Ariyo who sell men’s wear in the same market, according to the police, was arrested alongside his wife and others, on July 14, 2015, after they reportedly broke into the shop owned by one Kudirat Akinyede, said to be a senior police officer's wife, in the night of June 7, carting away gold jewellery and cash sum, all estimated at N11.6m.

Apart from Ariyo and Mosunmola, some security guards attached to the market were also apprehended in connection with the crime, but were later released after they were interrogated.

The police said the suspect confessed to the crime after he was transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Ikeja, though his wife who was released the following day, told reporters that her husband confessed under duress.

She said:

“Officers at SARS said he had confessed. But when I asked him, he said he had suffered a lot; there are bruises all over his body.”

According to Mosunmola, her husband had visited his parents who live near the burgled shop, and was bathing on the premises in the midnight when he saw some men in black dresses and he ran inside, leaving his phone on a bench.

It was learnt that policemen attached to the Lion Building Police Division, later called Mosunmola with her husband’s phone, and traced them to their residence in Ikorodu.

She said the police ransacked their house and took her jewellery box to the station, where Akinyede was asked to identify whether they were hers.

“On June 14, somebody called me that he found my husband’s phone. I gave the caller our address to bring it. Suddenly, a team of policemen stormed our house. They searched our house and took us to the station.

At the station, my gold trinket was shown to the woman, but she could not find her own there. They later returned the box to me.”

However, the police had gone ahead to arraign Ariyo before an Ikeja Magistrate’s Court on two counts bordering on armed robbery.

The defendant’s plea was not taken by the presiding magistrate, O. Sule-Amzat, who ordered that the case file be sent to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions for legal advice, before ordering that he be remanded in prison till the adjourned date of September 29, 2015.