Detectives attached to the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS), Lagos State Command, have arrested a police informant who turned robber for allegedly vandalizing cars and removing their brain boxes. It was learnt that the 39-year-old suspect, Oluchi Ezeje, was said to be working for the police as an informant but in order to make more money he joined a robbery gang.
Ezeje and his gang members always converge on a hotel at Ejigbo area before setting out, after which they would vandalise cars between midnight and 3a.m. They then resell the stolen brain boxes to a buyer at Jakande area of the state.
The suspect said he was into buying and selling of used clothes before he started working with the police as informant.
According to him, he later joined a gang of robbers who specialised in vandalising cars and removing their brain boxes.
He said: “It was a friend called Kabiru that I met at a club who introduced me to the stealing of car brain boxes. I have participated in two operations. It was the second outing that I was arrested at Ayobo area where we went to remove a brain box. But my friends that I went with escaped from being arrested.
“Immediately the policemen saw my friends where they were removing the brain box in a car parked on the roadside and I sighted them, because I was the one driving the car, I quickly called their attention to it and asked them to come into the car and we escaped.
“Unfortunately, the car fell inside a ditch and my car was seriously damaged. I went to Ayobo police station to make a report. The divisional police officer said I should be detained and told me I was part of those who vandalised a car parked in the community and advised me to open up.
“When I noticed I have nothing to hide again, I decided to tell the DPO the truth. I was then transferred to the FSARS office at Ikeja for further investigation.
“I am a serious police informant; it was greed that led me into robbery. Through the fairly used clothes I am selling I was able to know some of the bad boys, I always heard them discuss their robbery operations and their locations whenever I am with them. Through that I would immediately call the police to get ready. With that, the majority of the robbers had been arrested and prosecuted.”
Ezeje disclosed that whenever he gave information to police about robbery operation, they would pay him for the information. The suspect later claimed that he had already informed the police of the robbery.
He said: “On the fateful day I was arrested with the armed robbers, I went with them to the operation in order to give police information about their location. Unfortunately, we were removing the brain box when policemen came.
“I had already told my police source that I was going out with a gang for operation. Unfortunately, policemen from Ayobo Police Station who were on patrol of the area saw my friends and I where we were removing the brain box. We had already removed the brain box and pin button of the car.
“Those my friends usually sell the stolen brain box for N40,000, while the car button goes for N30,000. The first operation I went with them, I was given N40,000 but the second was when I was arrested by the police.”
Ezeje added that he was doing well in his clothes business but he was trying to trap them for the police so as that he could make more money.
He said: “In order to give the robbers out to the police I usually drive them to the scene.
“The information I was passing to the police was paying my bills. It was through the proceeds I made from the information I passed to the police that I used to buy car. There was a time I gave information I gave to the police and I was given N3.5 million. It was from the money that I used to buy the car.
“I feel better, because police are doing their own job and I have opened up to them about what transpired between me and other suspects who are still at large.”