According to reports, the deceased lone police officer was accompanying a civilian when the thieves approached him outside the Airport Hotel, shot him, and stole his gun.
Preliminary investigation, according to the Lagos State Police Command, revealed that three weeks before the murder of the policeman, the suspects operated in a popular club in the Ikeja area of Lagos, where they dispossessed everyone in the club of cash and other valuables.
It was gathered that on the gang’s way out of the club, a policeman at the gate fired at one of them on the leg, but his colleagues were said to have engaged the policeman in a shoot-out and also carried their wounded colleague into their operational vehicle and zoomed off.
Briefing journalists, weekend, on the arrest, the command boss, CP Idowu Owohunwa, said: “Based on intelligence gathering on the armed robbery incident around Airport Hotel, Ikeja, that led to the murder of a police officer and the carting away of his rifle, operatives of the command embarked on a discreet investigation and arrested one Salami Ahmed, 30; Ismaila Adio, 22; Toheeb Muri, 23; Seyi Olajide, 24; Nelson Sunday, 34 and James Nnamani, 24, at their hideout in Alagbado and Amikanle areas of Lagos State.
“One AK-47 rifle with 21 rounds of live ammunition were recovered. The syndicate is also responsible for robbing a popular night club in Ikeja on July 19, 2023.”
The deceased policeman, an Inspector, it was learned, was on illegal duty as an escort at the time he was killed.
In a related development, the command also arrested 75 miscreants that have been terrorizing motorists in Mile and Orile areas of Lagos.
Out of the figure, 37 of them were arrested while extorting truck drivers, by the enforcement team set up by the CP to check the activities of security agencies and miscreants on the Oshodi/Apapa expressway.