The inhabitants of Garu village along Kaduna/Saminaka/ Jos road are yet to recover from the shock of discovering that four of their sons constituted the armed gang robbing and terrorising motorists, passengers and other travellers on the road for the past two months.

On Friday 22 February 2008, when a team from the anti-robbery squad of the Kaduna State Police Command combed the village and arrested three teenagers and a man alleged to be members of the four-man armed robbery gang, even the village head shed tears profusely.

The cue that led to the arrest of the gang, it was learnt, came from a member of the village whose name was not disclosed. He informed the police about his suspicion of Kefas Hassan, one of the arrested teenagers, who was known for petty stealing in the village.

This tip spurred men of the anti-robbery squad into action. It did not take them long to arrest 18-year-old Hassan, whose confession to the police led to the arrest of the three other members of the gang. They are Sunday Bala, 19, who was the gang leader, Francis Galadima, 18, and Sunday Joseph, 32. According to the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, Haz Iwendi, the four confessed to being members of the gang.

Iwendi said during interrogation they confessed to blocking the Garu/Saminaka road on two occasions and robbing motorists of their belongings. He further disclosed that two dangerous weapons were recovered from them.

Sunday Bala, the leader of the gang, did not deny the allegation of robbery against them when they were paraded at the Police Headquarters in Kaduna. He, however, blamed his involvement on unemployment and “work of the devil”. Bala claimed that one Jigolo introduced him to the robbery business about five months ago and after then, there had been no turning back. So, when Jigolo left the village for an unknown destination, he decided to gather his friends in the village to form another gang.

In an interview with Across Nigeria, Bala said under his leadership, the gang only used knives and machetes to scare their victims. “We did not kill or even injure anybody during all our operations,” he said. He therefore begged the police to consider them as “ignorant boys” who were forced into armed robbery by unemployment.

He said the gang only robbed thrice and the proceeds were shared equally among the four members of the gang. In the first operation, he said, they got N10,000, while the second operation yielded N12,000. He, however, lamented that the third operation, carried out on Thursday 14 February, was unsuccessful, as the target vehicle almost ran them over.

Perhaps the gang was hoping for a pleasant Valentine’s Day celebration.

—Reported by Femi Adi.