Men of the Ogun State Police Command have arrested a 47-year-old security man, Adamu Ibrahim, for allegedly hiring area boys to rob his employer.
However, the area boys, Ajibola Yusuf and Bakare Ifakayode, leaked the information to the police.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, disclosed this in a statement issued in Abeokuta on Sunday. Oyeyemi explained that Ibrahim was a guard attached to the Inspiration Filling Station at Matogun, Agbado, in the Ifo Local Government Area of the state.
According to Oyeyemi, the two area boys reported at the Agbado divisional headquarters that they received a phone call from the suspect that the manager of the filling station would be leaving the station around 8pm with huge sums of money running into N3m.
He said, “They reported further that the suspect, who described the manager and his motorcycle to them, instructed them to ambush, rob him of the money and kill him so that nobody would trace the incident to them.
“They stated further that the suspect believed that being area boys, they would be useful for him to realise his devilish plan. But they said though they are area boys, they are not armed robbers.
“Upon the information, the DPO Agbado division, SP Kehinde kuranga, asked them to continue playing along with the suspect, while he detailed his detectives to be on his trail.
“The suspect continued calling the duo and giving them the description of the manager and the route he would be passing through, when the police swooped on him and got him arrested.
“Initially, he denied planning any robbery with anybody, but when confronted with his supposed accomplices, he owned up to the crime.
“On further interrogation, he confessed to the police that the two people he contracted resembled those who had earlier robbed the same station years ago and that was the reason he thought he could confide in them to carry out another robbery which he would benefit from.”
The PPRO, however, said the state Commissioner of Police, Edward Ajogun, had ordered the immediate transfer of the suspect to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for further investigation.
He said the commissioner appealed to members of the public, especially business owners, to always do background checks on anyone they wanted to employ in order not to employ criminals.