Emma Nnadozie and Austin Anozie
23 May 2008
Lagos — Just like the biblical lamentations of Sodom, 25-year-old Destiny Akwaka kept on shedding tears uncontrollably inside the cell at the Police Headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos. He cried and cried but could not be consoled.
Even assurances from Crime guard that he may get a reprieve if he engages a good lawyer could not stop the torrent of tears flowing from his youthful eyes. He kept on muttering the name of his father and shaking his head. Intermittently, he would recline into his shell like a snail, stare at people around him but the next moment, he would burst into tears calling undecipherable names.
Though, the SSS1 drop out confessed that he has been into robbery for about four months now, he, nevertheless, said that his father, a sailor from Ghana and his step mother from Delta State made him go into robbery due to the neglect and maltreatment he received from them after his mother's death.
He also revealed that his 'beautiful' younger sister who could not endure the maltreatment had since gone into prostitution and disappeared into thin air. Destiny was arrested with four members of his gang after they cleverly trailed a man who withdrew N60,000 from a bank at Ajangbadi area of Lagos State. He confessed that they earlier positioned themselves in front of one of the banks along Ajangbadi road and when the unsuspecting victim leisurely stepped out of the bank after withdrawing his money, they started trailing him. While Destiny quickly joined the motorbike popularly called 'Keke Marwa' which the man entered, the rest followed them closely behind in two motorcycles.
When they got to a spot where the man wanted to disembark, Destiny quickly pulled out a gun and ordered the man to hand over the money. As soon as the man dropped the money into his hands, he quickly threw it to one of the bandits on top of the bike. The bandit cleverly collected the money and zoomed off with the bike while the second rider was waiting for Destiny to jump into his own bike so that they would disappear.
Unfortunately for them, some street urchins who were hanging around the vicinity noticed the swift operation and quickly alerted the rest of their people. They raised alarm which attracted many people and they all pursued the fleeing bandits and caught up with them. While many people were trying to hand the bandits over to the police, the street urchins insisted that they must be lynched for having the guts to operate in their territory. It was the timely arrival of some Policemen that saved what could have degenerated into crisis as they quickly took the bandits to their station for interrogation.
Destiney told Crime guard,"My name is destiny Akwaka. My father is a Ghanaian while my step mother is from Delta State. My father worked formerly with a biscuit company in Apapa before becoming a sailor. He used to come home once every three months. After the death of my mother, he remarried and we all relocated from Ajegunle to Okokomaiko.
Unfortunately, while my father was busy sailing on the sea and only coming home once every three months to spend just three days with his family, the new woman in the house started maltreating me and my younger sister. When we were supposed to be in school as early as 7.30am, the woman will ensure that we got there as late as 10 to 11 am and the school teacher failed to listen to our complaints. Rather, he kept on flogging and punishing us. Even when my father came back and we complained to him, he would turn deaf ears to our plight and as soon as he left, the woman will intensify her wickedness on us. That was why I dropped out from school at 18 in SS1 when I could no longer endure the suffering. My younger sister who could not also stomach the wickedness of our step mother disappeared into thin air one day.
After dropping out of school, I started selling pure water and later, I became a conductor. It was there that I met Toheeb who introduced me into the art of picking pockets and snatching handbags from people. When we started, we were forcing people to stop on the road after which we will search and take all the valuables they have on them. Later, we met the rest of the members of the gang and we all started robbing with motorcycles. You can see that we are four in number.
We used to operate along Ajangbadi road. What we do is to station ourselves in front of banks and watch customers go in and out of the bank. Any of them we suspected of having withdrawn a huge amount of money, we will trail till he gets to his destination and we will then rob him. That is what we have been doing until police arrested us. I don't smoke but I drink Don Simmons but not too much.
That is what energies me before we go for operations. After our operations, we normally divide our loot. So far, we have not been able to get much from our operations. I don't know what else to tell you or the police but I will only say that if my family had taken good care of me and my sister, I would not have got myself involved in this. I am begging police to forgive me even though I have not made big money from this. I will not steal again in life if forgiven".
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