Nigerian female robber says she acts as decoy during operations

“It was my boy friend that introduced me to the gang,”. ———————————— Serifat Bakare, a 24-year-old female robbery suspect who was arrested alongside her gang members by the Ogun State Police Command, has confessed her role in robbery operations across South-West Nigeria. She told PREMIUM TIMES, Wednesday, while being detained at Special Anti-Robbery Squad located along Presidential Boulevard, Abeokuta, that she was being used as a decoy for operations by the gang. “I am here because I was part of a robbery gang. It was my boy friend that introduced me to the gang, he followed us to the operation but he was not lucky, he was killed,” she said. The suspect, who said she was a commercial sex worker at Kuramo beach in Lagos before she joined the robbery gang, told PREMIUM TIMES that her boyfriend had been shot dead during a gun duel with the police after the gang’s robbery operations in Sango town of the state. “I met my boy friend in Adeniji phase II. Before we met, I was into prostitution at Kuramo beach, I don’t operate in Obalende because of familiar faces but I operate in small Kuramo in Lekki phase II. “Every day, I realised like N5,000 as a prostitute and it was from the same money I took care of my parents. It wasn’t as if the money was not enough but my boyfriend asked me to stop the business that he will be taking care of my needs”. The woman said the operation which led to her arrest was her second outing with the gang. “This is my second operation, it was Luqman (her boyfriend) that called me for the operation. Initially I didn’t know they were going for robbery, I was tricked into it, because I was told we were going to sell a car that was earlier stolen and I was commissioned to seat in front of the car so that people will not suspect us,” she revealed. Ms. Bakare said that on the first operation she participated in, the gang was to go and rob a man of N70 million in Sango, Ogun Stat. The operation failed, so they decided to snatch a car on Ibadan-Ife expressway. She said in a bid to get sophisticated guns for robbery operations, she had to sell her gold chain. The rest of her all male gang, Ms. Bakare said, assured her of safety. “Members of the group informed me…that nothing will happen because I was also to act as a decoy so that the police will not suspect the vehicle,” she said. Ms. Bakare said members of her gang wanted her to carry a gun but she refused saying “the police will not suspect us”. She said she was not promised any money but believed her late boyfriend will take care of her.