Photos: Chadian robbers who attacked Vanguard publisher’s home say his guards were in on it

The Lagos state police command yesterday parade three Chadian nationals who attacked and robbed the Anthony village Lagos home of the publisher of Vanguard newspaper, Sam Amuka on June 5th. ‎Photo of 81 year old Mr Amuka with an injury he sustained during the robbery above.

The arrested suspects identified as Atim Abubakar, Mohammed Musa and Razaq Hassan told police detectives that two security men attached to the publisher's home were part of the plan to rob the building as they gave them prior information that foreign currencies were in the home of Mr Amuka.

One of the suspect, Atim Abubakar said

“During our interaction, Mohammed, one of the security officers, told me that it was one Gambo who has the contact of the house we are going to rob. Mohammed said Gambo had assured him that they are not going to encounter any problem during the operation, since the security men attached to the house were in the know of the attack. On the day of the operation, we stormed the house around 3.00 a.m. On arrival, we met the gate to the house open. The security men were already expecting us. We had no difficulty accessing the place. The two security men on duty advised us to tie them down. They also said we should not tie them too hard. Based on their instruction, we tied them and left them inside the gate house. We entered the main house through the ceiling. We met only the owner of the house at home sleeping in one of the rooms upstairs. I stayed downstairs while Hassan and Musa went upstairs. As I ransacked the cabinet in the siting room, I saw two pieces of foreign currency on the floor. At the end of the operation, I got N100,000 as my own share of the stolen money and a wristwatch”.

Lagos state Police Commissioner, Fatai Owoseni, while parading the suspects, said the police in the state were on the trail of the fourth member of the gang who is currently at large

“Based on the account Chief Sam Amuka gave us, three persons out of the four suspects that robbed the Vanguard Publisher have been arrested. From their confessional statement, it is certain that the three suspects actually participated in the robbery. A Mitsubishi salon car used by the robbers, one sledge hammer and one iron cutter were recovered from the suspects. The three arrested suspects are Chadians who are members of a notorious cross-border armed bandit. Investigation is presently ongoing. At the end of the investigation, we believe that we will get to the root of the matter, since it was not the first attack on Chief Sam Amuka,”he said.