A middle-aged mother of four, Madam Oluwole, yesterday, broke down in tears on hearing of the arrest of her son, Taiwo Oluwole, for alleged armed robbery, saying he could not ordinarily have been an armed robber but for spiritual attack.
She said: “He went into robbery after a spiritual attack. As a mother, I have done all I could to make sure that Taiwo will be useful to himself.
“After his father died, I tried my best with the little I had to ensure that he completed his secondary school education.
“After that, I enrolled him in a printing outfit as an apprentice. He was attached to his boss for about a year and six months after he stopped. That was when I began to notice these despicable behaviours of his.
“I started with prayers, but there were no results. I took him to various native doctors and prayer homes for deliverance but nothing changed.
“Rather, he got worse by the day. He was not like this, which is why I strongly believe this is the work of the enemy to render my son useless in life.
“I have never collected anything from him because I know that the source of anything that comes through him is not clean. Even when he buys a gift for me, I reject it because I am strongly against his way of life.”
How he was arrested
Madam Oluwole is the mother of 30-year-old Taiwo Oluwole who was arrested by eagle-eyed anti-robbery detectives in Lagos State.
The suspect and one Segun Ogunlodo, alias Sangbere, 26, and Akeem Raji were alleged to be members of a five-man armed robbery gang said to be terrorizing Ebute-Meta, Oko-Baba, Oyingbo and its environs.
The arrest of Taiwo Oluwole at the scene of a robbery operation at about 2am reportedly led to the arrest of the other two suspects, while efforts are on to apprehend other members of the gang.
Vanguard learned that Taiwo Oluwole was accosted by men of the state Criminal Investigations Department, SCID, Panti, Yaba, who were on routine patrol and a locally-made pistol and three live cartridges were recovered from him at the scene.
Confession
Confessing to the crime, Taiwo Oluwole said: “I am an armed robber and I have participated in several robbery operations.
“I started out as a pick-pocket, later I started breaking into people’s houses and stealing their valuables.
“Thereafter, I graduated into full-fledged armed robbery two years ago. I bought the gun from Segun Ogunlodo. He sold the gun to me for N18,000.
“I cannot explain why or how I went into robbery, because after my secondary education I went to learn printing for a year and six months, but did not complete my apprenticeship.”