Ifeanyi Okolie, showed no sign of remorse when he was paraded at the Lagos State Police headquarters alongside 45 other robbery suspects that have been terrorizing the state.
According to him, members of his gang usually retired to hotels at the end of any successful operation where the loot is squandered on commercial sex workers and expensive clothes.
He told Crime Alert that robbers usually settled for commercial sex workers in order to avoid selling out their true identities.
How I was lured into robbery.
His words:
“My friend, Chukwuemeka lured me into robbery. I saw him dolling out money to some friends at a beer parlour last year. We all call him big boy because he could pay as much as N30, 000 to N50, 000 for drinks at a sitting. When I went to him to show me the way, he told me what he was into but said he had never killed anybody. I decided to join him because of hardship.
If not for the harsh condition, I would not be standing here today. I want the Federal Government to come to the aid of idle youths by providing us work to do to earn a living just as it is being done elsewhere in the world.
“If I can get something to keep me busy, I won’t go into robbery. The first time I went with them, we burgled a tile’s shop. We do not steal goods because one will easily be arrested. What we do is to go for the cash. Traders usually keep cash in their shops. They have an inbuilt safe in their shop where they keep money. At the end of the first operation, three of us got N550, 000 each. The gang leader got the largest share. Out of my share, I bought a fairly used car for N200, 000. I bought some new clothes and kept the rest at Motilado hotel in Isolo,” he stated.