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Two suspected members of a highway robbery gang, Ejike Ani, 32, and Chubuzor Anasihwe, have narrated how they allegedly met while serving prison sentences and later became involved in robbery operations along the Ife-Ilesha Expressway in Osun state.
The suspects who were arrested by operatives of the Lagos State Police Command’s Anti-Kidnapping Unit on Friday gave separate accounts of how their paths crossed, and how they reconnected after their release.
The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, Fatai Tijani said preliminary investigations linked the suspects to robbery incidents on August 20 and September 20, 2026, along the expressway, during which about five vehicles were allegedly snatched and valuables estimated at ₦50 million were also stolen.
He said the suspects were apprehended at separate locations in Lagos following investigations by the command’s Anti-Kidnapping Unit.
During confession, Ani, an indigene of Ebonyi state and a former cloth seller, attributed his involvement in the alleged crimes to poverty, mounting debts and his mother’s medical challenges.
Narrating how he met one of the alleged gang leaders whose name he gave as Chinedu, he said they became close while serving prison sentences at the Kirikiri correctional facility.
“I was arrested by the police for armed robbery. I used to sell clothes on Lagos Island. When things became difficult, I became a motor boy,” he said.
Ani recounted that his imprisonment followed an incident in 2021 when he accompanied an acquaintance, Ifeanyi, to deliver a message in Ketu.
According to him, he was unaware that the trip was connected to the sale of a firearm.
“I was arrested after the police discovered that the bag contained a gun. After some weeks in detention, I was charged to court and convicted,” he said.
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