By Tola Gbadamosi

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A  three-man  inter-state robbery syndicate which succeeded in stealing 1,400 expensive phones and two other suspected cultists and robbers have been nabbed by Ondo State Amotekun Corps.

    The State Amotekun Corps Commander, Akogun Adetunji Adeleye, while speaking with The Hope Metro , said the inter-state robbery syndicate  resident in Abuja, had operated in seven states without being apprehended.

He revealed that the suspects have stolen over 200 phones in each state they had visited, saying , “Ondo State is the  seventh state and they have  made over N84 million from the enterprise within six months.”

“The three-man syndicate, lodged in a 5-star hotel in Akure, with one of their girlfriends and hired commercial motorcycle riders to take them round the metropolis for assessment.

“Having surveyed the town, the following day, they would hit the streets, stealing people’s expensive phones in cunning ways they had rehearsed. And they had applied such severally for successful operations.

“After the arrest of the syndicate, they took the Amotekun Corps operatives to the various locations where they had robbed their victims.

“Some of the victims,  were at the Amotekun Corps headquarters in Akure to collect their handsets,” he stated.”

Adeleye, who is also the Special Adviser to the State Governor on Security Matters, said another robbery suspect was arrested for robbing someone of N4.5 million in Odigbo Local Government area of the state.

 Thirty-one-year-old Victoria Iyagbe, who confessed that she is a girlfriend to one of the suspects, narrated to the Corps how they carried out some of their operations, especially at big shops where expensive phones were sold.

“Whenever we arrive at any of the big shops, we pretend like normal customers who want to buy phones with hooded faces and with our heads covered with jackets.

“While bargaining the prices, we would confuse the seller using some tricks and  the moment we got the target, we remove the jackets and stylishly place it on top of the items and abscond with them,”she revealed.

Adeleye added that two suspected cultists, robbers and burglars targeting students’ hostels because they are on holiday, were also caught,”he added.