The suspect, Abiodun Adelabu. Photo: Oluwatoyin MalikIT was great rejoicing among operatives of the Special Anti- Robbery Squad (SARS), Ibadan under Oyo State Police Command when a notorious armed robber who had been on the run for months, Abiodun Adelabu was arrested at Beyerunka area of the city recently. Adelabu, popularly called Abbey, was the head of the gang put in place by another robbery baron, known as Biggie or Marshall. Biggie, who receives snatched vehicles from his gang, reportedly owned auto shops in Ibadan, Abuja and other places before he was dislodged from Ibadan and Abuja when he knew that the police were after him. While Abbey and his gang members reigned in Ibadan city, they were a big headache to the state police command with the way they were snatching vehicles on a daily basis. One of their victims, a lawmaker with the Oyo State House of Assembly, was shot when he was attacked, to the extent that his entrails came out of his stomach. He was left for the dead and was said to have gone through surgeries to join his intestines together. Till today, the man still bears the scars of the gunshot injury. Briefing journalists while parading some suspects on Tuesday, September 24, the state’s Police public Relations Officer, Olabisi Okuwobi-Ilobanafor said that the SARS had set a dragnet for Abbey until they got information that he was sighted at Beyerunka area. On sighting the police, Abbey reportedly engaged the police in a shoot-out in order to make a way of escape for himself. However, he was shot on the legs to subdue him and was subsequently arrested. Among other exploits of the gang was the robbery operation they carried out on December 9, 2012 at Ring Road area where they dispossessed one of the editors of Macmillan Publishers of her Toyota Avensis car. One of the gang members, Victor Okafor, who specialized in removing trackers from vehicles, and who had already lodged in a hotel in Ibadan, awaiting a vehicle to be snatched, quickly removed the car tracker and was heading for Abuja when he was halted at Ikire by policemen from Osun State Police Command. The car was recovered from him. Okafor’s arrest led to the apprehension of two other suspects namely Biola Ayoola and Alhaji Ibrahim Animashaun, whose house Ayoola described as the take-off point whenever they were going for robbery operation. Since then, Abbey decided to leave Ibadan to lie low for
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 09:51:13 +0000
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