Three ‘kid’ robbery suspects, Timileyi Femi, aka Anini, 13 years; Ojo Sunday, aka Oyenusi, 15 years, and Matti Lowe, aka Osunbo, 16 years, at the weekend made startling revelations of how they robbed 46 times before they were nabbed by operatives of the Ondo State Command of the South-West Security Outfit, Amotekun.
The teenagers took names after generational dare-devil armed robbers, namely Ishola Oyenusi, and Lawrence Anini with Monday Osunbor.
Oyenusi ‘reigned’ in the 1970s, while Anini, along with his sidekick, Osunbor, dominated the news in the late 1980s. All the three were brought to justice.
Speaking with journalists after they were paraded by the Amotekun Corps operatives in Akure, the state capital, the suspects said apart from sharing their loot with their parents, they also paid house rents for their parents.
Arrested and paraded along with the teenagers were the mother of Timileyin, Iyabo Femi-who was said to have aided and fortified her son with local charms while going for robbery operations; and an herbalist, Adeyemi Ayodele and his mother, Kehinde Ayodele.
Confessing to different crimes, Timilehin Femi (Anini) said, “I have been robbing since I was 12-years-old. I used to hide my gun inside the ceiling after every operation. Nobody knew about this. Whenever we were going for any operation, l would quietly climb the ceiling and remove the gun.
“Sometimes I gave the gun to our herbalist to keep if it was not possible for me to climb the ceiling after an operation and I needed to hide it.
“My mother used to fortify me with charms so that I would not be caught by policemen or other security operatives.
“After every robbery operation, we used to hand over the stolen goods to the herbalist who would sell them and give us cash in return. We never queried him on the sale of the items, all we needed from him was to sell the goods and hand over cash to us.
“We also gave some of the proceeds to our mothers after operations. We have participated in about 46 operations. The charm that my mother did for me enabled me to disappear whenever I was about to be apprehended.
“The charm however failed when the Amotekun officers arrested me. I don’t know what happened that day, it just didn’t work.
“My mother was surprised that I was arrested cheaply and she asked me whether I had eaten what I was advised not to eat that could render the charm ineffective”.
Confessing too, Sunday Ojo (Oyenusi), said; “ l have lost count of the robbery operations we have been involved in. We were given the names Oyenusi, Anini and Osunbor by people within our neighborhood because of the manner we operated”.
Timileyin’s mother, lyabo Femi, in her comment, said, “Timileyin is my only son; he used to engage in robbery anytime he was with Sunday. So, I took him to a church for deliverance to make him stop robbing. In the church, I was given a soap with which to bathe him by the river side but he still continued robbery anytime he saw Sunday who is a bad influence on him.
“I didn’t do any charm for him, it was only the soap I was given in the church that I gave him to bathe with”.
The state commander of Amotekun, Chief Àdetunji Adeleye, while parading the suspects said, “It is amazing that we have another generation of armed robber who named himself Oyenusi. And here is a 12-year-old confessing that he had to climb a stool to keep his weapon in the ceiling and he was being empowered by the mother to guarantee that nobody could arrest him.
“He has now graduated to a full blown armed robber and was operating a gang of seven members. He is the youngest but the most vicious and powerful.
“We also have a group that specialised in stealing of generating sets as well as those that kill for ritual purpose. We have rapists and a dare-devil armed robber arrested in Ore with some cartridges”.
Adeleye said investigations had been rounded off on the suspects and that they would soon be charged to court.
He, however, assured the people of a crime-free state, adding, “in our usual determination to guarantee safety of lives and property, we have commenced 24 hours patrol in the 18 local government areas with the assistance of all other security agencies in the state”.