It was like a scene straight out of a movie script, when a stranger, later dubbed Police informant, sauntered into the office of the operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Lagos State Police Command, located at the Ikeja, GRA, and gleefully announced, “I’m a robber! My gang stole the missing truck and container, with its N147million worth of goods.”
If the informant was trying to get the operatives’ attention, he definitely did. Seasoned operatives, who had seen and been to hell, looked coldly at him, with their stares almost boring holes into his face and body.
The informant squirmed in trepidation, but he had come prepared. He knew that right then, there was no going back. For him, going back was as difficult as going forward. He took the plunge and his words jumped, stumbled and tumbled over each other as he tried to tell his story.
The informant was quickly ushered into the office of Philip, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) in charge of the IRT Unit in Lagos State.
After several minutes drilling under the unrelenting gaze of Philip, the story came pouring out of the informant. Yes, he truly was an armed robber. The operatives, who had seen a lot of characters in their line of work, knew there was a catch somewhere in his story and his willingness to surrender himself to the police.
The informant told them he came to surrender himself to the police because he wanted to be punished for his crimes, but he quickly added that he was not alone in the robbery operations.
He told Philip and other operatives that a police Inspector, identified as Mr. Asom Ubi, working with Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), was the leader of the gang.
As the man further revealed the gang’s modus of operandi and the sharing formula of loots, the suspected catch in his surrendering himself, fell into place. The puzzle was complete.
He was a robbery suspect allegedly cheated by Ubi. Vexed at being cheated, the informant decided to hand himself to IRT operatives, just to ensure that Ubi was also arrested.
According to him, he felt that if he went to SARS office at Police Command, Ubi might be allowed to go free since he was part of the SARS’s family, thus he chose IRT.
A police source said: “Ubi is among SARS operatives that newly joined the Lagos State Police Command. He has only spent a month at SARS, Ikeja, before he was posted to Onireke Police Station, after the police outpost was created. He was drafted there, and being the most senior person there, he was made the Station Officer (SO).”
Since Ubi started working there, different kinds of allegations had been trailing his footsteps. One of the allegations was that Ubi used to disappear from his duty post for more than two weeks or more. Whenever he was about to do his vanishing act, he goes with his rifle.
This rifle, according to a source at Onireke Police Station, was always in his car, contrary to police rules. Every policeman was expected to keep his rifle at the station’s armoury when leaving for home.
In the middle of this year, a truck, carrying 40 feet container, loaded with GNLD products was snatched. Two weeks after this truck disappeared, the stranger walked into IRT office. He declared that he was a robber and also had information for the police about the missing truck.
He met Philip and further told him that he was involved in the snatching of the truck. According to him, he was among those that snatched it. He promised to lead operatives of IRT to where the truck was kept.
The source disclosed: “When he was further quizzed, he said that they were a seven-man-gang that carried out the operation of robbing the truck driver and confiscating the products. He added that the operation was led by a police Inspector, attached to SARS, serving at Onireke police outpost.”
A stunned Philip was said to have quickly dispatched his men to Onireke, where Ubi was arrested. It was further alleged that Ubi confessed to the crime.
Acting swiftly on the heels of the informant’s information and Ubi subsequent arrest.
