Three robbers who specialise in snatching cars from Uber drivers have been arrested by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command.
The three, who lured an Uber driver into the bush, beat him into a state of unconsciousness before escaping with his Toyota Camry 2006 model car, met their nemesis in the Lekki area of the state on Thursday.
It was gathered that the suspects, Daniel Alagor, 28; Samuel Effiong, 25; and three others still at large, had on Wednesday requested the services of the Uber driver from Alagor’s telephone.
Alagor told the Uber driver, Charles Ekwomi, to convey him and one Blessing, who is still at large, to the Abijo GRA area from the Jakande Estate, Lekki, around 11pm.
Midway into the trip, Blessing, according to Alagor, told the driver that they were going to a birthday party at Shoprite in Sangotedo and would pick up two of their friends at the Abijo GRA, Ajah.
In his statement the police, Ekwomi explained that “I agreed to pick their friends and drop them at the venue of the party as we were already in the Abijo GRA. I noticed that their friends were not at the bus stop.
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“They called their friends and we agreed that I should move into the estate to meet them on their way. I drove for about 100 metres and I didn’t see them. That was when I insisted that I was going no further.
“They eventually came and immediately they entered the car, they tied a rope around my neck from the back. Then, all of them started punching me till I passed out.
“Thinking that I was dead, they took me into the bush and dropped my body near an uncompleted building. They left a knife by my side after tying me. Thank God, I woke up later and managed to escape. I reported at the closest police station and eventually, I learnt that the RRS men arrested them.”
Thinking that they had killed the Uber driver, it was learnt that the suspects left one of them in Abijo GRA, while Alagor, Blessing and another suspect, whose identity the police are still working on, drove the car to Shoprite, Ijeshatedo, to pick Samuel Effiong, who had allegedly negotiated with a buyer based on the Fashola Estate, Lekki.
Effiong stated, “Blessing had some time ago told me that he wanted to sell a car. He called me on the telephone around midnight on Wednesday to take him to the person that wanted to buy the car. They picked me up at Shoprite, Sangotedo. I didn’t follow him to where they stole the vehicle.
“We were close to the Fashola Estate when we ran into the RRS patrol vehicle. They stopped us for a check. Blessing and his friend bolted, while Alagor and I were arrested. They also arrested Emeka Okoye, alias Tallest, who wanted to link us with the buyer.”
The suspects have been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Panti, Yaba, for further investigation.