‘Why we killed Obadina, Newswatch Dep Editor’

Members of a notorious robbery gang that confessed to have killed the Deputy Editor of Saturday Newswatch, Mr. Toyin Obadina, during an operation in Ikorodu area of Lagos eight months ago, have been arrested by police in Lagos State.
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Left: Felled Mr. Toyin Obadina. Arrested suspects (right).


One of the robbers said their leader shot Obadina because the journalist struggled with him.

It would be recalled that the deceased was driving in his Toyota Yaris salon car, with registration number AKD 701 CE, when he was attacked at Itoikin, Old Ijebu-Ode Road at 1a.m, on his way home at Parafa area of Ikorodu.

He was rushed to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, where he was operated on, but later died.

Obadina’s murder was suspected to have been an assassination. But the suspects, who were paraded before journalists at the command’s headquarters yesterday, said they never knew the identity of their victim.

The Command’s boss, Kayode Aderanti, said he received information that the gang was converging on their hide-out at Mile 12 area, in preparation for an operation last Friday.

He said: “Based on the information, a team of crack detectives, led by the officer in charge of Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, Abba Kyari, swung into action and two suspected members of the gang, Ibrahim Adeokin and Babatunde Makinde, were arrested.

“Immediate search conducted on them led to the recovery of two cut-to-size locally-made single barrelled short guns, with 12 rounds of live cartridges.

“During interrogation, they confessed to belonging to a six-man robbery gang who has been terrorising Lagos State and its environs. They also confessed to be responsible for the killing of the owner of a Toyota Yaris car with registration number AKD 701CE, which they snatched and later abandoned with the corpse at Ikorodu.

“The victim was later discovered to be Mr. Toyin Obadina, the Deputy Editor of Saturday Newswatch. Their confession later led detectives to Ikorodu area where one Festus Adeshina and Sunday Samuel were also arrested.

“They mentioned Olasheun and Omo Alhaja, who are at large, as members of their gang, while Oke and Benjamin, who they claimed were members of the gang, were killed in a shoot-out with operatives of SARS at Mile 12 area.”

How we killed Obadina —SUSPECT

One of the suspects, Shina Festus, told journalists that he (Obadina) was shot dead by their leader, whose identity he gave as Oke.

He said: “We were coming from Imota, while he (Obadina) was going inward. On reaching a bad spot, he slowed down and we blocked him with our vehicles: one in front and the other behind.

“Four members of the gang came down from the vehicles. While two of them positioned themselves to wade off intruders, Oke and Benjamin went to the man in the car. An argument ensued between Oke and the man, and Oke shot him dead.

“When one of us asked Oke why he shot the motorist, he got angry and shot the gang member for challenging his authority.

“At the end of the operation, we collected his phone, laptop and some money we saw in the car. When we got to our hideout, Oke told us that the man struggled with him.

“We did not know the man was a journalist and my job is to drive the operational vehicle.”

I was about to quit robbery, says suspect

Twenty-one years old Shina, who still has a pending case of alleged robbery, revealed that he had only gone on operation with members of the gang three times, and made about N200,000.

The suspect said he was arrested just when he wanted to quit robbery.

He said: “I started thinking of quitting when Oke and Benjamin were killed by policemen from SARS during a shootout.”

Aderanti said the suspects would be charged to court, adding that effort was on to arrest fleeing gang members of the gang.

He warned criminals to turn a new leaf or leave Lagos State for good, adding that the command was determined to hunt down criminals that come to Lagos.