‘We r@ped only married women and not teenagers or children’- Two armed robbery suspects arrested in Oyo

Two suspected armed robbers, Lekan Taiwo and Olasunkanmi Oluwaseyi, arrested by the police in Oyo State Police have revealed that they only raped married women during their operations and never molested any teenager or a minor.

They said they were aware that sleeping with minors was against the law but were not aware sleeping with a married woman or any other adult constituted an offence.

The suspects also confessed that the k!lled anyone who claimed not to have money to give them during their operations. They equally killed anyone who resisted them.

The two suspects, usually armed with cutlasses, specialised in robbing victims living in their environs in the daytime and invading homes at night.

They were among the 41 suspects paraded on Friday, July 19, 2024, by the police command at the maiden press briefing by the State Commissioner of Police, Ayodele Sonubi.

The two suspects k!lled a 35-year-old man,  Yisa Mohammed, on July 4 at 7:50 pm, on his way to Igbagbo Village via Iroko in Akinyele Local Government Area, in company with his wife, Anifat.

The wife, who lodged a report at the police station at about 9 pm on the same day, told the law enforcement agents that on getting under the bridge at the said Iroko Village, the two suspects emerged from where they were hiding and attacked both of them with cutlasses, resulting in the d@ath of her husband, while she managed to escape from the scene.

It was further learnt that the suspects were subsequently arrested and they confessed to the crime during interrogation.

They reportedly claimed that the deceased owed them N5,500 wages but refused to pay after working for him as labourers on his farm.

Some hours before killing the man, the suspects were said to have committed the same act by hacking a 60-year-old woman, Mrs Nike Odediran, to death.

The case was reported at Moniya Divisional Police Headquarters by the deceased’s son.

Below are the excerpts of Sunday Tribune’s interviews with the suspects:

Can you please give a brief on your background?        

I am Lekan Taiwo. I’m 25 years old. I’m from Ibadan, Oyo State, and a motorcycle mechanic. I was living with my father.

Why were you arrested by the police?

I killed people.

Please explain.

I live in Iroko Community in Akinyele Local Government Area. My crime partner, Sunkanmi, and I used to rob people, armed with cutlass. The victims we killed were passersby within Iroko environs.  We killed those who tried to resist our attacks or who pleaded they didn’t have money to surrender.

How did you conceive the idea of robbery and killing?

My crime partner, Sunkanmi, is like a neighbourhood brother. Sometimes, we would not have money to eat. So, we would go out to search for how to get it. Whenever we met a victim on the way carrying bag, we would attack such, with the belief that we would get something. However, we would discover that truly, there was no money when we searched the bag after killing the victim. We would go back home and plan for another operation. In total, we killed five victims. I started in 2023 before Sunkanmi joined me.

How did you usually plan your robbery operations?

Sunkanmi and I live far from him; so he would come looking for me and vice versa. We would go to other communities. We also used to smoke cannabis.

We didn’t know each other when we were young. At a time, he also went to Lagos State before returning home. We became close like brothers on his return to the village. He joined me in robbing people so that we would be able to eat and dress well, and also live fine among our mates.

How were you carrying out the robbery operations?

We usually went in the evenings to neighbourhoods or invaded houses in the middle of the night. We used to go to known places. We also used to stumble on those we didn’t know along paths and roads in the afternoons. We would stop and rob them of their money and valuables.

During operations at night, we would leave home and avoid areas where night guards were patrolling. We would spare those who gave us money but kill those who refused to yield to our demand. We would hack them with cutlasses which were our weapons.

We learnt that you used to rape female victims, both young and elderly. Is it true?

Yes, that is true, but not all of them. Also, the elderly females were usually in their 50s and 60s, not up to 70 years old. We would just tell the victim: ‘Let us have fun with you,’ and she would yield to our demand. We used to ejaculate into them without using any form of protection.

Also, we used to sleep with married women whenever we were in the house of a couple. We would ask the husband to lie down, facing the floor. Any man who tried to raise his head would be beaten. So the men had no choice other than to do as we ordered while we had our way. We were not touching female children and teenagers because we learnt that the law calls it rape. We didn’t know that the same applies to adult females. We were not covering our faces during our operations.

How many people have you killed?

We have killed four men and a woman.

Why did you kill the woman?

We wanted to collect money from her, and she told us that she didn’t have.  We used our machete on her until she died. We searched her bag after that and discovered that it was true she didn’t have money.

We used to take other victims off the road into a nearby bush and usually inflict machete cuts on those who tried to raise alarm.

How were you arrested?

On July 4, we attacked the woman I told you about. As we were going home, we met a man whom we used to work for as labourers.  It was at about 8 pm and he was with his wife. He once told me he was an Aiye cult member while I belong to Eiye Confraternity. When we got to him, he called my name. He started castigating me for laziness, saying that I used to sleep while I was supposed to be working.

I just remembered that he was paying us unworthy wages for our labour, so in anger, I decided to kill him. I hacked him to death with cutlass. The wife ran away and went to report at the police station.

You claimed that hunger pushed you into crime, but why were you using money to buy cannabis? Was it quelling hunger in you?

I started smoking cannabis when I was about seven years old. I was not introduced to it by anyone. Whenever I saw a stub of it, I would decide to smoke it. I was tough right from childhood because one was sometimes beaten without committing an offence or accused of what one did not do. This usually evoked anger in me.

I didn’t have a mother living with us, and my father was a deep well digger who didn’t have much to offer. We were two children — my elder sister and I. We used to manage whatever our father bought for us to eat. My sister and mother are dead.

Have you never seen those with your predicament who struggled and made it in life without soiling their family name?

I have.

So, why did you choose the option of committing crime and killing innocent victims?

(No answer.)

Olasunkanmi Oluwaseyi

Tell us about yourself.

I’m 27 years old.

Were all the things said by Lekan true or not?

Yes, they are all true.

When did you start smoking cannabis?

When I was a young child. I grew up in Lagos.

Did the two of you participate in killing victims with cutlass?

It took some time before I knew Lekan was killing people. I used to leave for his Igbagbo village from my own Arikanki Village. I took him as my younger brother and even took him to a farm where I was working so that we could both get wages. When I noticed his lazy attitude, I chased him away.

Later, I went back to him. I joined him in killing this year and three people lost their lives through us after I joined him — two males and a female.