How Blackberry Phone Led Robbers To Police Net

When armed robbers descended on residents of Lady Lak, a Lagos suburb, raping and looting, many took it for a fait accompli. But it was not to be. A blackberry phone revealed the felons. How? 

It was a black Saturday for residents of Lady Lak in Palm Grove area of Lagos State, when daredevil robbers, reportedly numbering about 14, held residents hostage, dispossessing them of their valuables including cash. 

Awofodu and Ajiun streets in the area are naturally busy areas in the locality, but in recent times, life there had be rather calm and peaceful ostensibly because of the ongoing Ramadan period. But the calmness of the two streets gave way on Saturday, 27 July, 2013. 

Around 1:30 am that fateful day, armed robbers reportedly commenced their operation at No 22, Awofodu Street, where they shot sporadically into the air, thus sending many residents of the streets burying their heads in their pillows. Robbers, all wearing hoods over their faces, forced their way into the one storey building.

They cut the main source of light into the building and began room to room raid. Occupants were robbed of their laptop computers, five BlackBerry phones, expensive jewellery and large sums of money. But this was not all as a woman, who tried to hide herself from the glare of the men of the underworld was reportedly raped by four of them. 

After a successful operation; it was the turn of Ajiun Street which was close by. No 11 Ajiun Street was the robbers’ next port of call. 

There, they reportedly carried out another raid employing the same modus operandi as they were said to have also cut off the power source of the building and making use of their lamps which they came with. 

But quite unlike what happened at Awofodu Street, one of the robbers who seemed to be the leader, on getting to No 11, Ajiun Street, began calling out names of all occupants of the building one after the other.

And at the said house, the robbers reportedly made away with several mobile telephones, jewellery and large amount of money, too.

Though no female occupant was raped at the No 11, Ajiun Street house, two of the occupants were shot by the robbers. One of the shot occupants, Seun Sanusi, was in deep sleep when the robbers arrived the building.

He was woken from his sleep by the loud bang on the main entrance of the building. The robbers allegedly called out his name and demanded that they be taken to his room. Sanusi was already by his door before the robbers got there and he was pushed back into his room by their leader.

Speaking with Saturday Mirror, Sanusi claimed that he would have killed but for the intervention of one of the robbers who probably knew him well.

“It was what they call a close shave with death. I was in my room sleeping when I heard a loud bang on the main door of the building and started hearing my name called. Initially, I thought it was a quarrel among co-tenants but when I heard my name, I jumped up to open my door.

“As I wanted to open the door, it was pushed back and I came face to face with about four hefty men.

They demanded for my phones and the whole cash with me which I hurriedly handed over to them. But before the man collected them from me, he gave me three hot slaps,” Sanusi said on telephone.

He narrated how one of the robbers asked him to close his eyes and pulled out a gun and shot him in the leg. He continued: “When he shot me in the leg, I fell down and was bleeding all over the room. But the man cocked the gun again and wanted to shoot point blank before the man that led them.”

Sanusi was immediately rushed to the Gbagada General Hospital for medical attention, but was later taken to a traditional medical home where the bullets were reportedly extracted from his thighs. Another occupant of the building sustained injuries from guns of the robbers.

Another resident, identified as Idris, claimed that the robbers almost shot him but for the door to his apartment that the bullets hit and smashed.

As fate would have it though, on the second day, Sanusi’s elder sister, identified as Debby, added her brother’s BlackBerry pin code 32fd0ac3 which was taken away by the robbers. Once Debby pinged the BlackBerry, one Oluwaseun Azeez Adebanjo at the other end – using Sanusi’s stolen BlackBerry, responded.

The self-acclaimed computer engineer was later found to reside about a dozen streets away from where the robbery took place.

During Debby’s chats with the said Adebanjo, the latter informed his new found lady friend of his intention to sell some fairly used BlackBerry phones and other accessories. The lady thus signified her interest and the two of them fixed an appointment for last Tuesday at an eatery at Palm Grove area.

While Debby continues to chat with the said Adebanjo, law enforcement agents were duly kept in the known and they encouraged the lady to continue with the conversation. Adebanjo was picked up by security operatives while sitting with Debby at the eatery on the appointed day.

Adebanjo later told the police that the phones were given to him to sell by his boss who resides in Mowe area of Ogun State.

Law enforcement agents later went in search of the man that purportedly gave Adebanjo the phones to sell and he was arrested with the other people in his residence.

Speaking on the arrests of the suspects, a police source who sought anonymity, says, “We have a few of the suspects in our custody and we are continuing with investigations.

The ones with us are really assisting and in no time we shall get to the root of the matter,” the police source said.