Two members of a syndicate who specialise in killing drivers of ride-hailing apps and selling their cars have been arrested by policemen in Lagos State.
Roqib Moshood and an alleged accomplice, Olawale Kolawole, have been arrested, while efforts are ongoing to arrest other fleeing gang members, including one identified as Yusuf Adeyemi.
Yusuf Adeyemi, alongside Roqib Moshood, allegedly killed a ride-hailing app driver named Oluwaseun Adeniran and dumped his corpse by the roadside before stealing his vehicle.
The suspects usually used innocent victims to initiate their criminal acts, a source told Punch.
In one instance, 22-year-old Moshood, on April 12, told his neighbour’s son, Taofiq Sanni, to help him request the services of driver Adeniran, 43.
After accepting Sanni’s ride request, Adeniran drove Moshood and Adeyemi from the Ojodu area to a destination around the Fagbem Filling Station area, close to the Long Bridge end of the Lagos Ibadan Expressway.
During the course of the journey, the suspects allegedly told the driver to link through the desolate road beside the Long Bridge on the pretext of going there to pick up a friend.
Moshood said, “The incident happened around 9 pm and we told the driver to pass through Fagbem to link the road beside the Long Bridge. We know the area is usually abandoned and how we convinced him was that we were going there to pick up a friend.
“But when we got to a spot, I was sitting behind the driver when I suddenly brought out a rope, used it to tie the driver’s neck and as he was wrestling with me to free himself, Adeyemi, who was sitting beside him, brought out a knife, stabbed him in the chest and used a heavy object to hit his head.
“When the driver died, we pushed him out of the vehicle, I took over the steering and drove away from there. On the way, Adeyemi got down and went home to change his cloth because it was stained with the driver’s blood and I drove down to the Afrikan Shrine to meet up with some of our friends.”
Moshood said he and his gang members had killed two e-hailing drivers using the same tactics, adding that the third victim escaped death by a whisker.
The 22-year-old said, “We have killed two drivers by pretending to be passengers. The one that led to my arrest was the one that happened on the road beside the Long Bridge. The vehicle we took from the victim was sold to a buyer for over N1m.
“It is a Toyota Camry; I was able to sell it because, as a car painter, I have a friend, Kolawole, who also paints cars. Kolawole never knew how I got the vehicle. I told him to pose as the vehicle owner to convince the buyer to purchase the vehicle. I initially told the buyer to pay N3m but after the negotiation, he paid N1m or thereabout. The police arrested me in Ikire, Osun State.”
Meanwhile, the accomplice, Kolawole, said the police arrested him because he posed as the owner of the vehicle that Moshood stole after killing Adeniran. He added that he was also instrumental in arresting Moshood.
He said, “It was because I pretended to be the owner of the vehicle that I was arrested. Even after the car was sold, the person who bought it kept threatening me because he had issues with it. He got my number when he called to ask if I owned the car Moshood wanted to sell to him.
“But when the threat was getting too much, I called Moshood to ask the owner of the vehicle to intervene and he said he could no longer reach the owner of the car.
“All of a sudden, I heard Moshood had fled the area and when I informed people about what happened and how I was being threatened by the person who bought the car from Moshood, it was at that point that I was told Moshood killed someone and sold the vehicle.”
When Adeniran’s family members could not locate his whereabouts, a case of a missing person was reported at the Alausa Division of the state police command and officers were assigned to investigate the case. Investigation led them to the suspects.
Efforts are being made to apprehend fleeing members of the syndicate.