Looking for the Dead among the Living: How Robbers Butchered Stolen Vehicles in Lagos

Segun Atanda/

Lagos State Commissioner of Police (CP), Fayoade Adegoke, was not delivering an Easter Homily yesterday when he paraded suspected criminals just as Easter was knocking at the door but something he said was eerily familiar as he told how his men busted a ring of car snatchers.

Like those who went looking for the body of Jesus Christ after he was buried and were asked by two angels (Luke 24: 5) “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?”, Adegoke told how his men were looking for the dead among the living when they set out to recover a stolen car on Lagos roads only to find it in the graveyard of vehicles butchered on the day they were stolen and the dismantled parts sold in pieces within hours.

Adegoke said that policemen searching for a stolen car made a breakthrough on March 25, 2024, at about 10:10 am following a report of an ongoing butchering of a Sienna vehicle in the Okokomaiko area a few hours after it was stolen.

According to Adegoke, detectives stormed the area and arrested suspects identified as 31-year-old Gambo Jubril, Muhammed Sanni (31), Usman Sanni (33), Mustapha Saliu (28), Abba Abdullahi (24), Saminu Abubakar (18), Aruna Abdullahi (21), Awoulu Yusuf (25), and Useni Bala (22).

The vehicle was stolen at about 1:30 a.m. in the Era area of Lagos. Its butchered parts were recovered 8 hours later, at the Ojo-Alaba area of the state.

At the media briefing held at the Mike Okiro Officers Mess in Ikeja, Adegoke presented the scorecard of his officers showing how they have kept the city safe and secure under his watch in 3 months.

According to Adegoke, the Lagos State Police Command, in the past month, arrested 64 suspects who have engaged in crimes including armed robbery, cultism and unlawful possession of firearms, unlawful possession of illicit drugs, and recovered a total of 20 firearms including four toy guns, 120 rounds of toy ammunitions, 28 live ammunitions, 15 live cartridges and three expended cartridges alongside recovery of four vehicles, POS machine, seven cutlasses, illicit drugs and various charms.

“Since I assumed duty, a total of 2,329 suspects have been arrested for crimes ranging from cultism to armed robbery leading to the recovery of stolen property. In the same vein, 2,253 have been prosecuted and many others are being processed for prosecution,” Adegoke announced at the media briefing.

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