Robbers disguise as patients, attack Lagos hospital

Robbers disguise as
patients, attack Lagos
hospital

Five suspected armed robbers, who
disguised as patients, have attacked
a private hospital in the Shibiri,
Ajangbadi area of Lagos State,
carting away valuables.
PUNCH Metro learnt that while three
of the robbers escaped, two suspects
– Babatunde Bamidele and Idowu
Balogun – were apprehended and
taken to the Ajangbadi Police
Division.
Our correspondent gathered that
the incident occurred on Tuesday
around 10pm.
The Lagos State Commissioner of
Police, Fatai Owoseni, who did not
disclose the name of the hospital (to
protect it from reprisals), confirmed
the incident, saying efforts were on
to apprehend the fleeing gang
members.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the five
robbers had posed as patients and
requested to see the doctor.
It was said that Bamidele and
Balogun stayed at the hospital’s
gates, while one Yusuf and Ahmed,
said to be among those at large,
entered the doctor’s office, feigning
to be patients who needed medical
attention.
It was learnt that the three,
however, robbed the doctor of
money and phones, which they
passed to the duo at the gate.
Our correspondent learnt that while
the robbery went on, a distress call
was put across by a patient to the
police, and the operatives stormed
the scene.
The two men at the gate were said
to have been arrested, while the
others fled the hospital.
Speaking with PUNCH Metro , 32-year-
old Bamidele, who hails from the
Lagos Island, said it was Ahmed
who invited him “for the job”,
adding that he was given the
doctor’s phones to keep during the
operation.

He denied that he entered the
hospital as a patient.
He said, “I do car battery charging
and rewiring on the Lagos Island.
My father is a chief on the Lagos
Island area. There is a cut on my
stomach. I sustained it when I fell
off from a motorcycle three weeks
ago. That was the cut the policemen
saw and said I came to the hospital
as a patient.
“It was a friend, Ahmed, who
invited me for this job on Tuesday.
I was at a drinking joint when he
came and persuaded me to join
them.
“Ahmed is a pickpocket, I will not
lie. We don’t have any gun. He had
asked me to wait at the hospital
gate that evening. The other suspect
and I were at the gate. We did not
see the doctor who was robbed.
“When the policemen came, they
whisked me and the man away in a
van, but Ahmed and others escaped.
I did not know whether they
disguised as patients inside the
doctor’s office or not. I was not
given any money.”
The second suspect, 29-year-old
Balogun, who hails from Ajase,
Kwara State, said, “I did not know
Tunde (Bamidele) before Tuesday.
He and I were stationed at the
hospital gate. It was Yusuf who
invited me to come to the hospital
to rob. What I usually do is ‘sit and
fire’. That means, I steal money
from people’s pockets inside
commercial buses.
“They said they had a job to do and
they took me along. That was the
first time I would go to that
hospital. I was going to run away
when the police arrested me.”
The CP, Owoseni, said the suspects
would be charged to court after
investigations were concluded.
He said, “The gang is based in the
Ajangbadi area. They pretend to be
patients and they attack hospitals.
“One of them held his stomach
when they came into that hospital,
and when they were asked to come
in, they began to rob the patients.
Investigation is ongoing on their
matter.
“A similar group pretends to be
motorcycle passengers and when
the rider picks them, they spray
him some substance, and he
becomes unconscious. They then
steal the motorcycles. Some of them
have been arrested as well.