TWO men suspected to belong to an armed robbery gang, led by a female, have been arrested by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Oyo/Ogbomoso axis of Oyo State Police Command while passing through the state with a 2013 model of Toyota Avalon car taken from its owner in Ilorin, Kwara State, while the car was also recovered.

One of the men, Ibrahim Saka (52), an indigene of Ilorin, Kwara State was arrested with the car while the second suspect, Akande Badiru, was nabbed while waiting to collect the car from Saka, to be taken to Saki town in Oyo State.

Crime Reports learnt that at about 11p.m. on Friday, May 9, the Oyo State Command received information from Kwara State Police Command that a gang of armed robbers numbering about five, armed with a cut-to-size pistol and other dangerous weapons invaded a man's house in Ilorin and dispossessed him of his brand new Toyota Avalon 2013 model with registration number EKY 313 CU at gun point.

Based on the information, the officer in charge of SARS at Oyo, Olusola Aremu, a Superintendent of Police, was said to have led two patrol teams to Oyo/Ogbomoso road where they encountered the armed robbers. On sighting the operatives who waved them to a stop, the armed robbers were said to have engaged the police in a shootout, with one of the policemen, one Corporal Alarima Samuel sustaining serious bullet wound in his left arm.

Undeterred, the SARS operatives reportedly pursued the armed robbers as they turned back towards Ogbomoso where they were coming from, and punctured one of the car tyres with bullets. Sensing that the policemen were closing in on them, Crime Reports learnt that the armed robbers abandoned the car at Onigaari village along the road and jumped into the bush.

But one of them, Saka, was caught with serious bullet wounds on his left arm. Shortly after, Badiru, suspected to be a receiver, was arrested while waiting to collect the car from Saka.

In an interview with Crime Reports, Saka revealed that he was only hired by the gang leader, a female popularly called Alhaja Ilorin or Mama Titi, to drive the car to Ibadan and hand it over to Badiru. The suspect said: "I am a crosser; I help those who smuggle cars to bring their vehicles into Nigeria from Cotonou, Republic of Benin. I have been doing this for the past 15 years.

"On the case over which I was arrested, I have known Alhaja Ilorin for about two years. She is popularly called Mama Titi. She is also from Ilorin but she also stays in Saki in Oke Ogun area of Oyo State. I used to help her bring in rice from Cotonou to Nigeria and would drop some for her in Saki.

"On Friday evening, May 9, Mama Titi called me and told me that I would help her take a car to someone in Ibadan on Saturday. She told me she was in Ogbomoso.

"I left Ilorin at about 6a.m. on the following day and met her and two men at Baptist Hospital junction, Ogbomoso. They were with a Toyota Avalon car which engine was kept running. One of the men gave me the car key. I asked Alhaja for the name of the person I would deliver the car to, and she replied that I should be going, saying that the person's number would be forwarded to my phone. She also told me I would meet the person at Iwo Road in Ibadan.

"As I got to Oyo in a traffic holdup, I was stopped by some men in a yellow bus. Earlier, I had noticed that the bus was following me. When I heard 'stop! Stop!!', I did not stop but increased my speed to get away. I thought the men wanted to snatch the vehicle from me. In the process, the men shot at one of the tyres of the vehicle I was driving. Still, I did not stop.

"I was shot in my left arm but I made a u-turn towards Ogbomoso to escape. At a point, I abandoned the vehicle and ran into the bush but I was pursued and captured. While I was with the police, the man I was to hand the car over to in Ibadan, whose name I later got to know as Badiru Akande, called to know where I was.

"I told him I was at Oyo but had a burst tyre. He said he would send someone to come and meet me where I was. When the boy came, he was arrested by SARS operatives. When Akande called the boy to ask if he got the car from me, he also answered that the car was with him so Akande said he was on his way to collect it. It was when he came that he was arrested."

When asked on the number of vehicles he had helped Mama Titi with, the suspect said that would be his first time, except an unregistered Tokunbo Toyota Rav4 which he drove for her in 2013 from Cotonou. When asked again why he did not ask questions about the car he was told to drive since the vehicle already had registration number, he answered again that crossers used to put number plates on Tokunbo cars to bring them into Nigeria undetected. He even cursed himself that God should slay him if he knew the vehicle was stolen from its owner.

"Mama Titi promised to pay me N10,000 for the job but I was yet to be paid when I was arrested." Though Saka said he had never engaged in any shady with Mam Titi before his arrest, he admitted that the man who handed the hey of the vehicle over to him warned him that he should not connive with the Alhaja to tell unacceptable story about the vehicle or else he would pay for it with his life.

The second suspect who was to collect the car from Saka, Mr Akande Badiru (49), an indigene of Saki also denied knowing that the car was stolen. According to the suspect, "I used buy motorcycle parts from Nigeria to sell in Burkina Faso where I am domiciled. I knew MamaTiti along Burkina Faso-Cotonou-Nigeria route in 2013. She used to come to Burkina Faso to buy rice and tomato puree.

"On Thursday, May 8, I was in Lagos where I met Mama Titi with her group. She told me she came to buy some goods. She enquired from me the time I would be returning to Saki and I told her I would go back on Sunday May 11, but would touch Ibadan before then.

"I was in Ibadan on Saturday May 10 when Mama Titi called me and said she had a car she wanted to take to Saki, asking whether I would drive the car to the town. She told me the buyer was in Saki. She said the car was from Ilorin so I thought it was a car smuggled in through that end. Since I was short of cash, I agreed to do it for her to make some money.

"She sent Saka's number to me and I called him when I saw he was late in coming. He told he had a burst tyre so I sent one Gbenga who is also a crosser to go and meet him. Unknown to me, both of them had been apprehended by the police. I decided to come to Oyo to take the vehicle but to my surprise, I was held by SARS operatives who informed me that the vehicle was a stolen one."

Confirming the story to Crime Reports, the police spokesperson in Oyo State, Olabisi Okuwobi-Ilobanafor, commended the efforts of the SARS operatives, whom she said were not discouraged even after one of them was shot by the armed robbers.

The PPRO disclosed that the case would be transferred to Kwara State Police Command where the robbery incident took place.