Photo: Medical doctor turned armed robber arrested in Anambra state

45 year old Richard Macaulay Obafemi, a medical doctor who trained at the University College London, has been arrested for Armed robbery by the Anambra state police command.

According to The Sun, Richard had his primary and secondary school education at Ipaja, Lagos State before proceeding to the Univer­sity College London, UCL, where he obtained a degree in Microbiology in 1987 and later studied medicine at University Colege London UCL, from 1987-1992.

In 1993, he did the housemanship in Hatsfield, London. In 1996, Obafemi who is an indigene of Ogun state, came to Nigeria for the Nation­al Youth Service Corps Scheme and was posted to Kwara State. At the end of the service year, Obafemi took up appointment with the College of Medicine, University of Benin, where he worked for two years from 1998 to 2000, before travelling to Saudi Arabia. He thereafter got another job offer at the University of Ghana in 2006 and worked there till 2015 when he decided to visit Nigeria.

“In 2015, I came to Nige­ria and visited Kaduna State. During that trip, a car I was driving had an accident and the victim died. I was charged to court and remanded at Kaduna Central Prison. But I was later released from prison on April 8, 2016".

While in prison, Obafemi developed a relationship with two other inmates, Stephen and Ifeanyi who were professional car snatchers and armed robbers. When he left prison, he met with these men who had also regained freedom and they convinced him to join their business.

"After I left prison, I had followed Ifeanyi to Asaba and joined their gang, which specialized in snatching cars. We have stolen cars like Lexus, SUV in Lagos State, which I drove to Katsina State to sell to buyers from Niger Repub­lic. I sold one for N450,000. I didn’t go back to University of Ghana because when I was in prison in Kaduna, I didn’t communicate with them. When I came out from prison, I found out that there was no going back. I decided to join the armed robbery gang to earn a living. I am married and blessed with three children. I lost my wife, Mary in 2012 while my three children are in Canada.”

Luck however ran out on them when the Anambra state police arrested an alleged member of their gang, Vincent, in Onitsha who revealed information to the police. Investigations by the police led to the arrest of Obafemi on May 17th at a hotel in Anambra.

The police will charge him and his accomplices to court soon.