An armed robbery suspect, 45 year old Jide Abass
(pictured right) who was arrested alongside his
accomplice (Lukmon Bello) while they were attempting
to rob outside a bank in Ogun state on Monday May
11th, said during his interrogation by the Ogun state
police command, that the cashless policy introduced by
the Central Bank of Nigeria has affected the operations
of armed robbers in Nigeria. According to him, people
do not move around with large sums of money anymore
as they now go about paying for things with their debit
cards.
"We usually laid ambush for bank customers,
especially those who had gone to withdraw
money. It is not difficult to notice them. For the
men, it is either their pockets would be bulging or
they would come out with the usual black nylon.
For customers who came in their vehicles, we
would either ambush them or trail them to safer
places where we would collect the withdrawn
amount. But since the introduction of cashless
policy, people don't usually got out with cash.
Even when they go to eateries or super markets,
they make use of POS and this has been affecting
our operations. We started operating in Ikorodu,
Lagos State but since the police seem to have
braced up to the challenge, we decided to
relocate to Ogun State. This is our fourth
operation here. I am ashamed of myself because
my two wives may likely divorce me if they find
out their husband is a robber," he said.
His other partner, Lukman said he was a clothier before
he resorted to armed robbery due to his inability to fend
for his two wives and children
"I was initially into international trade. I usually
travelled to Dubai to buy men's clothes to sell
until the trade crumbled. I had also travelled to
Mecca, Saudi Arabia, twice, to perform Holy
Pilgrimage. While the going was good, I got
married to two wives. But along the line, my
business crumbled and I started driving
commercial bus. At a point, I could barely feed my
family. In the process, I met Jide Abass, who
introduced me to robbery. On that fateful day, we
left Ikorodu where we live, to Abeouta to operate.
It was Jide who suggested we went far to operate
to avoid being recognised during operation. We
trailed this particular man to Oke-Ilewo. We saw
him counting some money and kept some in the
safe of his car. We did not know he would not
stay long inside the office he entered. We were
busy ransacking his vehicle for the money he left
and never noticed him coming out until he was
close. As we attempted to enter our car and flee
he pulled out a pistol and shot me in the thigh. I
managed to hop into my Mercedez benz car which
was used for the operation and sped off towards
Ibara Housing en-route Kuto (Abeokuta)/Isiun
Expressway. But I became unconscious as a result
of loss of blood and in the process ran into an
oncoming vehicle on reaching the Ogun State
NUT Conference Hall junction, close to MKO
Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta. Some good Samaritans
who did not know what actually happened came
to our rescue and rushed us to the Federal
Medical Centre,FMC, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, for
treatment. But to our surprise, the man who shot
me located us and arrested us. It was after we
were arrested that we discovered that he was a
policeman. My wives and children are not aware I
have been arrested. Greed lured me into this". he
said
Source: Vanguard
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