Policemen attached to the Lagos State Police Command have arrested five armed robbery suspects while making unauthorised withdrawals with stolen ATM cards.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, CP Imohimi Edgal, while parading the suspects on Monday in Lagos, said that the suspects were accosted following information received by members of the public.
“On Oct. 7 at about 12:30am, information was received from a credible source that some armed men were sighted making unauthorised withdrawal at Stanbic Bank Automated Teller Machine (ATM), Alaba Branch.
“The armed men were suspected to be using ATM cards that might have been stolen from unsuspecting members of the public.
“Based on the information, operatives from Ojo Police station and FSARS Ikeja swiftly mobilised to the scene where they arrested two of the suspects while others escaped.
“They were immediately searched and in the process, one Diamond Bank and one UBA Bank ATM cards, and one cell phone belonging to a victim were recovered,’’ he said.
Edgal said that during interrogation, the suspects confessed to belonging to a group of armed robbers popularly called “Blue Water Boys” who have been terrorising residents of the area.
“They further confessed to have robbed the owner of a restaurant at Araromi Street, Iba, and in the process they dispossessed the victim of some ATM cards and phones.
“One of the suspects claimed to be a specialist in hacking into bank accounts using victims’ ATM cards, SIM cards, Voter cards and Driver’s license,’’ he said.
He said that the suspects’ confessions led to the arrest of three others who were picked from various locations in the state.
“Recovered from the suspects are one Black Nokia Torch Light Phone, one Samsung Galaxy Phone, one Infinix Hot 4 Phone, two Laptops, one iPhone 7 plus Phone and one Asus Laptop computer.
“Others are one cut-to-size single barrel locally-made gun, 13 unexpended live cartridges and one expended cartridge,” he said.
