Four members of a notorious armed robbery gang which include twin broth­ers have been arrested in Lagos.

The twin brothers said to be children of a retired sol­dier, and the other two, also sons of retired soldiers were alleged to be specialists in car snatching and robbing of unsuspecting bus passen­gers of their valuables.

They allegedly use locally-made guns and military uniforms during op­erations.

They were arrested in La­gos State by the operatives of the Force Intelligence Response Team, IRT.

The police identified the suspects, Taiwo and Ke­hinde Ojomo, Emmanuel Bamidele and Peter Samuel, as children of retired officers of the Nige­rian Army.

Saturday INDEPEN­DENT’s investigations revealed that they were trailed to a popular hotel in Idimu area of Lagos State, where they were gathered in preparation for a robbery operation.

It was gathered that operatives of the IRT, led by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, had commenced investigation about the activities of the suspects in Lagos and final­ly got information about the suspects, when one of their victims of alleged robbery attack, Abiodun Sadiq, a resident of Bariga area of the state, who was robbed of his Toyota Corolla Salon car and other valuables at gunpoint in August, 2020 petitioned the Inspector General of Police, IGP Abu­bakar Mohammed Adamu to assist in unmasking the suspects.

Sadiq, in that petition was said have detailed how he was robbed.

IRT operatives, based on the report, were deployed to go after the suspects.

Sources disclosed that the operatives had difficulties arresting the suspects as they allegedly hide at the Ojo and Ikeja military can­tonments.

The source added that after months of investiga­tions, the operatives went after suspected buyers of stolen goods from the sus­pects.

A source said: “When we couldn’t arrest the suspects because they were hiding at the military cantonments, we went after their trusted receivers at Alaba Interna­tional Market and we arrest­ed and made them organise a rendezvous for us. The robbers were told that we had a big robbery operation for them and we agreed to meet in a hotel at Idimu area of Lagos and we got there, we found them seated and drinking and we apprehend­ed four of them.”

Responding to an inter­view, Taiwo, one of the twin brothers confessed that his brother Kehinde lured him into robbery.

He added that after sever­al successful robberies, he and his brother decided to form separate gangs as they did not want the police to ar­rest them at the same time.

He said: “My name is Ojomo Taiwo. I am 29 years old. I hail from Oke-Oka, Akoko South West Area of Ondo State. I reside close to Ikeja cantonment area. My father was a retired soldier, while my mother works with LAWMA. I at­tended Nigeria Army Chil­dren School in Ikeja and dropped out of secondary school because there was no money. In order to sur­vive I learn how to drive ve­hicle from one soldier who was deceased. On the day I was arrested, I was in a ho­tel in Idimu with my twin brother, Ojomo Kehinde planning how to stage an­other armed robbery attack before operatives of IRT ar­rived.

“I was introduced into robbery by my twin broth­er, Kehinde and we have gone for several robbery operations in Lagos. Later I joined another gang but whenever he wanted me to assist them, I will go and join them. As a bus driver, we normally rob passengers early in the morning or late at night. Our gang members will be in the bus or we will pick them along the way.

“Kehinde now has his own gang while I have mine. During operation, one of us will put on the army camouflage, so that our target will assume that it is safe to board the bus since there is a solid­er inside. We normally do it along lonely routes like Abeokuta expressway, LASU Igando route and Ikorodu road. The highest that I have made after rob­bery is N100,000:00.

“It is also the job of Sam­uel to sell all the valuables that we got during each op­eration. He has customers at Alaba international market where valuables like phones and other electronic gadgets are easily sold. I do not know the buyer. Other members of my gang are Bamidele Emmanuel, known as DPO and Babangida. The weapon that we are using belongs to all of us. We all contributed money and bought double barrel gun from one Alfred who lives in Cotonou. He brought the gun to Nigeria for us.

“We normally hide the weapons inside my car so that even if police should search our house, they will not find anything. Unfor­tunately, IRT forced me to show them the part where it was hidden. I kept it under the dashboard. I know that it is a shame that I and my brother are robbers. Police should please forgive us,” he lamented.

On his part, 29-year-old Oromo Kehinde said; “I re­side inside Ojo barracks. I was born in Owerri but we later relocated to Lagos. Taiwo is my twin brother and both of us dropped out of secondary school after our father who was a soldier died. My mother could not afford to train us. I was sent to learn how to repair vehicles which I did for years till I met one Cyril who was my long­time friend. We formed a three-man gang, others are Magajia and Cyril.

I was the one who introduced my twin brother into robbery. He kept asking where I got money and I had no choice but to show him the way. Along the line, we felt it was necessary to separate so that police will not catch us together. Unfortunately, the day I wanted to help his gang was the day police ar­rested us. We have attacked persons severally along Oshodi Bridge at night. It was there that we snatched the Toyota corona that my brother is using.

“The camouflage that was found with us is just to deceive people and rob them. I am not a soldier. I normally use my late fa­ther’s ID to pass any point where people or police chal­lenge me. I thank God that we have not killed anybody since then. We flagged down the Toyota Corolla at Osho­di begging that he should carry us to Iyana Oba, that we were ready to pay. I was pushed into crime because of greed. I am ready to help police arrest the rest if they will forgive me.”