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| The suspects, Adewale (left) and Jelili, with the guns recovered from them. |
A member of a notorious nine-man armed robbery gang in Ibadan city who was once arrested and charged to court in 2010, Jelili Adegbola a.k.a. Arise is in the news again as he was recently arrested by policemen in Oyo State Command after he and three other members of a newly-formed gang invaded Akingbade area of the city for another robbery operation. Also arrested with him was another jailbird, Adewale Lawal.
Jelili’s return into the crime world was revealed to journalists on Tuesday August 14 by the newly-promoted Assistant Inspector General of Police, Mr Tambari Yabo Mohammed during a press briefing held at the Command’s headquarters at Eleyele, Ibadan. According to the AIG, Jelili’s gang had gone to Akingbade area on July 30 at about 11.30 p.m. to rob one Alhaja Wosilat Akinwande but did not succeed in their operation.
Crime Features learnt that four members of a robbery gang namely: Yinka Abioye, Jelili Adegbola, Adewale Lawal and Akin (surname unknown); armed with two guns, had invaded the Akinwandes’ residence by scaling the fence while they watching television.
Three of the suspects had entered while Adewale stayed outside to keep watch, holding one of the guns. The gang leader, Yinka, held the other. Unfortunately for them however, Alhaja Akinwande’s husband gripped Yinka and sank his teeth into his neck.
As the pain spread through his body, Yinka reportedly screamed saying eyin! eyin!! (teeth! teeth!!, dropping his gun in the process, which Jelili picked.
On hearing his scream, other members of the gang, including the one who stood outside ran away. Fortunately, Jelili was found where he was hiding in a nearby bush. A locally-made cut-to-size gun was found on him. On further search of the environment, another locally-made cut-to-size gun was found with two live catridges.
When his case was transferred from Egbeda Division to Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ibadan for further investigation, the operatives succeeded in arresting Adewale who escaped during the July 30 robbery.
The shocking revelation was that the two suspects had been detained by SARS in the past and were inmates at Agodi prisons. While Adewale was charged to court in 2010 for stealing his boss’s car and was in prison before he was granted bail in Novemeber 2010, Jelili and Yinka, who is currently at large, were also charged to court in 2011 after they allegedly killed the Vice Chairman of Ogbere-Idi Osan Landlords’ Association, Mr Jelili Rahmon Durojaiye during an attempt to rob the neighbourhood, in an operation led by twin brothers, Taiye and Kehinde Amos.
Crime Features recalls that they were arrested on August 11, 2010 in an operation that led to the death of four members of the gang when they engaged in a shootout with the police in a midnight operation carried out by the SARS operatives. Yinka confessed then that he was the one who ‘mistakenly’ used cutlass on the deceased landlord while a leader of their gang then, Taiye, shot him.
He had told journalists then that he regretted his action, saying that he would have gone for money ritual instead of robbery.
Jelili however told Crime Features on August 14, after his re-arrest, that he was granted amnesty by the Chief Judge of Oyo State during her visit to the prison in December 2011. This made people who saw Jelili during the press briefing to wonder whether it was proper to release suspected criminals in the name of amnesty without allowing for appropriate punishment which is expected to serve as a deterrent to the offenders.
Speaking with Crime Features, 27-year-old Adewale, who said he is an indigene of Ijebu-Igbo in Ogun State but started residing in Ibadan in 2006 stated that as a professional driver, he started driving a taxi after his release from prison in 2011. According to Adewale, “I saw our gang leader, Yinka Abioye, at a car wash in Molete area where he also came to wash his motorcycle in July 2012. Before then, we had met in the prison. At the car wash, we exchanged phone numbers and one Sunday after that day, he called me and said there was work to do.
I asked him about the kind of work and he said robbery. I replied that I would go and think about it. I went back to him the following day and he gave me N2000. That night, Yinka brought cutlasses and said we should go for robbery but I told him that I could not go for robbery with cutlasses.
“I went to my village, Atan, in Ijebu Igbo and stole two guns from a hunter I knew there. I brought them back to Ibadan and we used saw blade to cut them to size.
Yinka was the one who led us to where we went to rob before Jelili was caught. It was friendship that landed me in my present predicament.”
The second suspect, Jelili, said he went to Lagos immediately after his release by the Chief judge in 2011 and started working in a bakery.
“One weekend, I came to Ibadan and saw Yinka at Idi-Arere. We decided to return to our former business of robbery and exchanged numbers. He brought Akin for the robbery, which was our first time out together after prison, but we were not successful.
I was caught where I was hiding in the bush,” Jelili narrated.
In his comments at the briefing, AIG Mohammed noted that though there would always be crime where there were people, such could be kept at a manageable level with the cooperation of members of the public. He added that SARS operatives would continue with their investigations into the activities of robbery gang, after which they would be charged to court, while they would also be on the lookout for Yinka Abioye and Akin who are currently at large.
