F or 27-year-old Olorunfemi Oyedele, a graduate of Accounting from the Nasarawa State Polytechnic, Lafia, life has not been worth living since he graduated in 2004 due to his parents’ inability to further finance his education for his Higher National Diploma.
Oyedele, who was recently paraded alongside other suspects including twins – Johnson Friday, aged 25 and Johnson Happy, aged 25 and Oyedele’s friend, Destiny Palmer – by the Osun state police said he joined armed robbery gang to survive the harsh economic condition he was battling with.
He said he had returned to Ilesa in Osun state to learn aluminium fabrication after completing his National Diploma in Accounting. Speaking with our correspondent at the Police Headquarters, Oyedele said he had learnt the skill for three years and was looking for money that he would use to settle his boss and also organise a freedom party with but could not get.
“After I graduated from Nasarawa Polytechnic, I returned to Ilesa to learn aluminium fabrication. It was not easy for me because my parents are poor and I have been trying to cater for myself alone. After spending three years with my ‘oga’, he asked me to get ready for my freedom and I did not have any money,” he explained.
On how he joined the robbery gang, Oyedele said he was introduced to the gang by a friend he met in Ilesa. According to him, he only went for an operation before he was arrested by the Police. He said he realised the sum N20,000 as his share from the proceeds of the first robbery he went with the gang.
“I was joined the gang through a friend that I met in Ilesa. His name is Destiny Palmer. He always have money with him and when I asked him how he use to get the money, he then introduced me to the robbery business. I only went to an operation with them. We robbed peoples’ houses and I got N20,000 as my share. I did not go with them to other operations that led to our arrest. They took the police to my house and I was arrested,” he explained.
According to the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fimihan Adeoye, the suspected armed robbers were armed with one cut to size locally made single barrel gun while carrying out their operations. When Oyedele was asked how the gang got the gun, he said he belonged to him adding that he a cultist friend gave him the gun while he was in school.
Our correspondent gathered that Oyedele belonged to an occult group while he was an undergraduate and that he brought the gun with him to Ilesa after he graduated from the polytechnic.
Oyedele’s partners said they took to robbery to make ends meet. Palmer said he is an apprentice in barbing saloon and that Oyedele was the person that brought the idea of using gun to rob people.
Palmer said, “when I met him (Oyedele), he told me he needed money urgently and I introduced him to the business of hijacking motorcycles and burgling. But when he finally joined us, he brought the gun and said we would make our victims fear us the more with it. We did not killbanyone with the gun, we only used it to rob them of their belongings.”
However, the CP vowed to rid the state of criminals saying Oyedele and other members of the gang would be charged to court after investigation was concluded.
