Allow me witness my mum’s burial, robbery suspect begs

One of the robbery suspects, Illiyasu Suleiman, arrested by the Ondo State Police Command in Akure, yesterday, pleaded with the Police to allow him witness the burial of his mother as he went into robbery to raise money to bury her.

He made the plea during the parade of four suspected robbers by the Ondo State Police Commissioner, Gbenga Adeyanju, yesterday, where the Police boss disclosed that two soldiers and four others were arrested for robbery and kidnapping along Akure-Owo Expressway in the state.

The suspects, according to CP Gbenga Adeyanju, were arrested with charms, AK-47 rifle, Nigerian Army uniforms, two booklets of Army pass, one Berreta pistol, cutlasses, knives, and one Hummer Jeep.

The two soldiers, who would be handed over to the Army authorities for prosecution, were not paraded alongside Jacob Amos, Iliyasu Suleiman, Moses Aleka and Jaiyeola Ojo. Speaking with newsmen, Illiyasu Suleiman, who claimed to be a computer repairer, said he was invited from Kogi State and lured into robbery by his friends, who claimed they were into internet fraud.

Suleiman, 37, said the need to raise money for his mother’s burial led him into the robbery, adding “I joined the gang to raise enough money for my mother’s burial.

“When I came, he told me it was Yahoo. It was when I got to him that it became a different thing. I told them I cannot go out like this, and they said there was no problem.

“It was when we went out that I knew it was a real problem. The village people shouted on us and we ran. I was later arrested by the Police.

“I am a laptop repairer. He told me to come and that he would teach me how to make faster money with Yahoo.

“I am appealing to the Police to sympathise with me because of my late mother. I don’t care what they want to do to me, but I want to witness her burial.”