A suspect, Haruna, who is among the suspects arrested by the Oyo State Police Command in connection with alleged armed robbery and recovery of a locally made gun with cartridges, has admitted to buying stolen items from those who are into the sale of scrap items, but denied knowledge of a locally made gun recovered by the operatives of the Monitoring Unit during a raid of his residence at Sabo area, Ibadan.

Saturday Tribune learnt that before the arrest of Haruna a.k.a Malo and two others, Tomiwa (28 years) and Kabiru (32 years), the operatives had apprehended some suspects who vandalised the light-up transformer used for solar-powered street lights at Ring Road. During interrogation, the suspects named Haruna as the one buying the stolen items from them, which made the operatives storm his residence at Sabo, Mokola area, in the dead of the night, where they met a lot of people sleeping, including a Yoruba man, Tomiwa.

While searching, the operatives reportedly found a bag in Haruna’s room, and on checking the bag’s contents, which were initially thought to be illicit drugs, the police discovered a gun. Also found in Haruna’s residence was Kabiru, the third suspect.

The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Olayinka Ayanlade, had disclosed in a statement: “The operatives of the Command’s Monitoring Unit conducted a coordinated raid on the identified apartment in the early hours of the day, and during the operation, three suspects identified as Tomiwa (28 years), Kabiru (32 years), and Haruna alias “Malo” (32 years) were arrested.

“A search conducted at the scene led to the recovery of one single-barrel locally made cut-to-size gun and seven cartridges.

“The suspects are currently in police custody while investigations continue to determine their involvement in other criminal activities and to apprehend possible accomplices.”

In an interview, Haruna admitted buying stolen goods but denied knowing anything about the gun recovered by the police.

Haruna, who hails from Kano State but was born in Ibadan, told Saturday Tribune: “I’m the first of my mother’s 10 children. My father had four wives and 32 children, and I live in his house at Sabo. I deal in purchasing scraps from those picking them. I started the business in 2018. In 2019, I left for Katangowa in Lagos State to sell used clothes (okrika). In 2022, I returned to Ibadan when my father died.

“A year after his burial, I thought of the young children he left behind, with three of us as males and the remaining seven, females from my mother alone. My mother is the fourth wife. I didn’t want my nine siblings to go through suffering or anything that would disrupt their schooling. At least, I had primary and secondary school education. We held a family meeting and it was decided that someone should be at home to take care of them. My brothers and I started the scrap purchase from those who go round to pick disused items. We would put them in our shop until those who would buy them would come.”

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Speaking of his relationship with those who pointed him out to the police after their arrest, Haruna said that they had brought copper to him about three times for sale. He admitted to knowing that the sellers were stealing part of the items he was buying from them, saying: “I know the act was bad, but I needed to take care of my siblings. My father was a politician, but he had nothing to take care of the children he left behind. I know that it is against the law, so I stopped and returned to Lagos in 2024. While there, I used to buy used clothes and bring them to Ibadan for sale. However, I still purchased scraps from the boys.”

On the gun found in his room, Haruna said that he knew nothing about it. “In my father’s house where we were staying at Sabo, many people used to sleep there. It’s a storey building, and I stay on the upper floor. I didn’t know that the boys I was buying scraps from had been arrested. The police met me at home the day they came. I was brought to the station. After interrogation, I was taken back home. That was when they saw a bag in a room where my siblings were sleeping in. I believe it belonged to a cousin called Abdulrahman living with us. He used to buy phones and laptops but I didn’t know he had a gun. He ran away before I was brought back for a search,” Haruna explained.

The second suspect, Tomiwa, 28, told Saturday Tribune that he was just a victim of circumstance. “I’m a Lagosian but I was born and brought up in Ibadan. I have a National Diploma in Mass Communication from The Polytechnic, Ibadan, and am currently running my HND programme.

“On the day I was arrested, my department was having a get-together party at a hall in the city before our exams. When I got there, I found it boring because my friends that I expected there didn’t come. After exchanging pleasantries with my classmates, I left. At that moment, my phone was down, so I couldn’t check the time, but it was almost midnight. I took a bike to Sabo at a place where I used to charge my phone whenever I was in my parents’ printing shop at Mokola on weekends.

“When the Aboki I went to finished with the charging of my phone and I switched it on, I saw that it was past 1 a.m. A security man advised me to sit somewhere and leave for my place at 5 a.m. at the start of the call to Muslim prayer. I did as advised, and was pressing my phone when the police arrived at about 2 a.m. and arrested everyone, including me,” Tomiwa narrated.

The third suspect, Kabiru, who also hails from Kano and claimed to be a tailor, said he was woken up from sleep in Haruna’s residence by the police, who said they recovered a gun. He said that the house owner was his father’s friend and that was why he was sleeping there. “They didn’t catch anything with me,” he stated.