Two members of the gang, Evans Demodia and Benson Obode, were arrested in Benin,the Edo State capital by a team of SARS operatives during a search for a stolen Toyota Corolla.
The car had been snatched at gun point from a Lagos businessman, Alhaji Babangida Isah,
at Dopemu area of Lagos.
The SARS operatives,sources said,had tracked phone calls by the suspects on Isah’s cell phone which they had stolen with his car.
Demodia, an auto mechanic, was arrested at his workshop, at No 33, Auchi Road, Benin City.
Further search in his house yielded two other cars suspected to have been stolen –a Toyota Camry belonging to one Mr. Lawrence Oaikhena, of Warri, Delta State, and a Honda CRV.
The Toyota Camry, was said to have been robbed at gunpoint from its owner, in Warri, Delta State, when a white Peugeot 307 car, with two occupants, double crossed it.
Twenty-seven year-old Demodia has confessed that he is a receiver of stolen vehicles from the gang.
He claimed to have received over four cars from the gang’s alleged leader, Obode.
He said Obode and one Chief Osama, met him in his workshop and lured him into joining the gang.
His words:”I joined because I saw there was huge profit in the business. When I met Obode, he told me that he was a car dealer that buys vehicles and he would want me to help him sell in Benin, but later I discovered that he was an armed robber.
“My suspicion was confirmed when I saw an expended cartridge in one of the cars, I also discovered that the vehicles usually had no papers. I deal in Toyota products, so I told him that I wanted Toyota cars. I paid him N400, 000 for the Toyota Corolla that he gave me and I sold it to a woman for N500, 000. I also bought a
Toyota Camry from him for N350, 000 and sold it for N400, 000.
“ I received two other cars which I was yet to sell when the police arrested me. When they interrogated me I told them that, Obode supplied the cars to me and I took them to his house. We didn’t meet him at home , but his landlord was asked to follow us.
“A few hours later, Obode, was brought into my cell and his face was covered with bruises. I asked what happened to him and he said he was beaten up by a mob when he got home. He told me that some vigilance men arrested him with a Peugeot 307 and he was identified as the robber who policemen from Lagos were looking for and while he attempted to escape he was chased and they gave him the beating of his life.
“On our way to Lagos, Obode, fell very ill and he was taken to the hospital.”
Pleading for mercy, Demodia blamed his involvement in crime on greed.
“I should have been contented with what I had. I wasn’t doing badly as mechanic and I have operated my own workshop for over five years. It was greed that made me join the gang. I feel very bad about it.”