Toweki Joseph, a.k.a.TK
Place of birth, areas of operation
He was relatively
off the radar of security operatives in Lagos State until last
September, when he organized the abduction of the wife of the Deputy
Managing Director of the Sun Newspaper, Steve Nwosu in their apartment
in Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos State.
Toweki Joseph,
a.k.a. TK, a 32-year-old native of Arogbo in Ese Odo Local Government
Area of Ondo State, until last Thursday, was the leader of one of the
most notorious and dreaded criminal gangs terrorizing states within the
South-West and South-South regions of the country. Members of his gang
who are mainly Ijaw natives and based in the creeks of Ishawo in Ikorodu
and Ijegemo areas of Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State,
were said to be responsible for most of the bank robberies that took
place in Ondo and Lagos states in 2015, that saw several residents
including security personnel lose their lives during the operations.
They were also linked to the abduction and killing of several security
operatives in Ikorodu area of Lagos State.
Waterloo
Last Thursday, TK
and 10 members of his gang met their Waterloo when they attempted to rob
some banks and bureau de change operators at Seme, a border town
between Nigeria and the Republic of Benin. Their target was to make up
to the sum of N1 billion. It was gathered that TK, who lead a 17-man
gang was ambushed by the security operatives when he arrived Seme
through the waters in four speed boats and was armed with heavy assault
rifles, such as two General Purpose Machine Guns, GPMG, seven AK-47 and
49 rifles, two LAR rifles and one automatic pump action gun.
Sources disclose
that operatives of the Inspector General of Police Special Intelligence
Response Team, SIRT, an elite squad of the Nigeria Police Force, newly
established by the current IGP Solomon Arase and trained to combat
terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery and other heinous crimes within
country, gathered an intelligence indicating that TK and his boys were
planning to carry out a large scale robbery on banks and bureau de
change at the Seme Border. Unlike in the past when such intelligence was
generated by the SIRT and passed on to the Lagos State Police Command
to act on, the SIRT operatives were deployed to Lagos State by Arase and
they also alerted the Nigeria Customs Service, the Border Patrol Unit
of Nigeria Police Force and men of the Intelligence Team B of the
Inspector General of Police Special Task Force on Anti-Pipeline
Vandalism.
Crime Guard
gathered that 72 hours before the operation, the Lagos State Police
Command deployed men of its Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, their
counterparts at the Area K Command and the Seme Police Division to
protect the banks and bureau de change at the operator, while the
policemen attached to Border Patrol and their counterpart at
Anti-Pipeline Vandalism were deployed into villages around the border.
Gang member assures on the N1 billion target
Crime Guard
gathered that 48 hours before the operation, the SIRT operatives, while
acting on its intelligence, arrested a driver to a popular bottling
company in Lagos, who was contracted as a member of the gang to help
them ferry rifles, ammunition and explosives for the operation. The
driver who was identified as Jonson Chukwuma, was picked up at the
premises of his company at Ijora area of Lagos and when he was
interrogated, told the police that he was contacted by one Ozoremena
Obi, a.k.a. OZ, who he said resides in Seme to carry the arms,
ammunition and explosives to the border so as to beat police check
points. He told the operatives that OZ promised to reward him handsomely
if the job was successful but he declined, thinking it was risky and it
could get him into trouble. Chukwuma then took the SIRT operatives to
Seme where they caught OZ in a hemp joint where he was smoking.
The hemp dealer at
the joint was also arrested by SIRT operatives. During interrogations,
OZ confessed and told the SIRT operatives that he and one of his friends
identified as Ifeanyi were the informants to TK and gave the idea of
the job to TK. He explained that after conducting his surveillance
around the banks and bureaux de change at the shops, he was confident
that they would make as much as one billion naira if the job was
successful. He added that to convince TK about the job, he told TK not
to give him his own share of the loot if the money was not up to N1
billion. He added that TK told him that it would then be his last
robbery if they succeeded.
OZ also explained
that TK wanted to come by road and escape through the waters and he
wanted a truck to bring to Seme the arms, ammunition and explosives that
would be used and he told him that it would be too risky, but TK
insisted.
He said he
contacted Chukwuma to do the job for him, but later he brought in
Ifeanyi to explain to TK that coming by road could be too risky due to
heavy presence of security operatives on the road and he urged TK to
come through the waters. He said TK accepted and promised to call him
when he left his camp for Seme.
Hours before death
Crime Guard
gathered that Seven hours before TK met his Waterloo, he called OZ while
he (OZ) was in police custody, and said he heard he was arrested and OZ
was asked to tell him that he was picked up by policemen from Area K
Command who raided the joint where he was smoking hemp and he was
detained for a night and he paid N1000 as bail. TK then told him not to
worry, that he was on his way and after the operation, he would be well
rewarded.
Five hours later,
OZ got another call from TK asking him to join them by the waterside in
Seme with a motorbike, so that he would lead them to the banks as they
were not familiar with the areas, but the SIRT operatives asked him to
tell TK to come to land and TK refused. But while he was thinking of
what do, TK was said to have moved closer into Seme and birthed close to
Custom Barracks.
Unknown to him, he
was moving into an ambush. The custom officials on guard at the barracks
on sighting TK and his men on the water, opened fire on them and they
went into different directions. 13 of them, including TK, who were on
three speed boats ran into Poturume, a village between Nigeria and Benin
Republic, and they had a clash with policemen from the border patrol
unit, backed by the Intelligence Team B of the Anti-Pipeline Vandals.
Crime Guard gathered that 11 of the suspects including TK sustained
fatal bullet wounds before they were handed over to the Lagos State
Police Command, Ikeja.
“TK was like a field marshal”
The Lagos State
Commissioner of Police Fatai Owoseni, while confirming the deaths of the
suspects, told journalists at the Command Headquarters Ikeja, that they
found the following with the bandits: Three speed boats, one with
inscription “Castina Marine”, 22 pieces of dynamites, four Ak-47 rifles,
two GPMG, 3,678 assorted live ammunition, 28 magazines, eight live
jackets, three 50 litres jerry-can of fuel, two 100 litres jerry-can of
fuel, assorted pieces of charms and military magazine jackets. Owoseni
described TK as a Field Marshall who commanded different armed gangs
that engaged in all forms of criminalities such as kidnapping,
high-profile bank robberies, pipeline vandalism, piracy and cultism. He
said, “TK had his
signature on almost all violent crimes in Lagos, Ondo, Delta, Ogun, Edo,
and Benin Republic. Intelligence had revealed that TK, at a time, led a
gang to hijack a vessel on the waterways of Ghana. Intelligence had
also revealed that he had his base in a creek situated somewhere in
Ijagemo in Amuwo Odofin LGA of Lagos State.”
Residents mourn death of TK
When news of TK’s
death filtered into Ishawo Ikorodu, Arepo and Ibafo areas of Ogun State,
Ijaw communities within these areas were thrown into mourning. A source
who spoke to Crime Guard on the condition of anonymity, disclosed that
TK’s father has been crying uncontrollably since he heard the news of
his son’s death. When asked why TK’s father was crying for a son who was
a known criminal, the source explained that TK built a house for his
father and that made him very close to his father.
Becoming a terror
The source added
that TK took to crime after he was excluded from the amnesty programme
for Niger Delta ex-militants. The source said it was same with Ossy,
another pipeline vandal. Said the source: “I am from the same
town with TK and his real is Tokiwe Joseph. I knew him while we were
growing up. I learnt he was angry that he wasn’t included in amnesty
package given to the Niger Delta ex-militants and he came to Lagos with
his boys and formed the Arepo Camp, where they were vandalizing NNPC
pipelines. He had his boys at that time but in 2013, he was arrested for
being in possession of a gun, was charged to court and remanded in
prison.
“When he formed the
Arepo Camp, he and his boys weren’t using guns and I don’t know how he
got the gun the police found on him. While he was in prison, Ossy came
with his own boys and took over the camp. Ossy and his boys came with
guns and they accommodated all TK’s boys into their command and became
so strong that no one could confront them. They became very brutal and
were killing anybody that stood on their way. They were responsible for
the killings of many security operatives. When TK was granted bail, he
came out a very angry man. When he went to Ikorodu, he discovered that
Ossy had taken over the camp, and one Igbala was controlling the Yoruba
boys and his deputy, Double Prince was all in charge of Ishawo and
Arepo. “TK then decided to form his own camp since his boys were not
ready to stay under Ossy. He took them to Ijegemo and they chased out
the man controlling that creek and started working. I actually don’t
know what made him go into armed robbery and kidnapping. I was shocked
whenever they mentioned his name in any of these bank robberies or
kidnapping across Lagos State.”
Attracting the spotlight.
Crime Guard
investigations revealed that before Nwosu’s wife was kidnapped in their
apartment, TK was almost completely off the radar. The IGP Special Task
Force, Anti-Pipeline Vandalism, was the only security outfit that knew
about his existence. However, the kidnapping of Nwosu’s wife, Toyin, and
the subsequent killing of nine operatives of the Department of State
Service, DSS, who were in Ikorodu to rescue the woman brought him into
the larger picture. He took the top spot of the most wanted criminal
after that incident and the IGP was said to have deployed the SIRT
operatives to track him down. TK, who was said to be highly shrewd and
tactical, was said to have always taken refuge within the creeks in
Ijegemo or Arepo.
Crime Guard
gathered that SIRT operatives, in October 2015, arrested one of TK’s
girlfriends in Abuja and it was discovered during interrogation that TK
was planning a massive bank robbery in Lagos State. The information was
passed on to the Lagos State Police Command with no specific area.
Sources at the Lagos State Police Command told Crime Guard that the
command swung into action and was placed on red alert with more emphasis
placed on the Island and Ikorodu areas that had been previously
attacked.
There was also
security beef up around Ikeja and other parts of the mainland, but a few
days after, TK, led the gang and they struck at three banks in Festac
Town and carted away large sums of money, while a middle-aged woman and
her baby were killed during the operation.
The source at the
Lagos State Police Command Headquarters also told Crime Guard that
intelligence was also generated on the Agbara bank robbery, but the
intelligence indicated that TK and his gang would strike at Badagry and
Seme areas. According to the source, “The intelligence
from the operative monitoring TK indicated in November 2015, that he was
planning to attack banks within Badagry and Seme areas of Lagos State
and security around banks in those areas was beefed up to maximum level
by the late Area Commander, Epko Esoung who coordinated the operation.
“But while he was
doing that, TK and his team took a detour and attacked a bank in Agbara
area of Ogun State and carted away over N110 million from the bank. But
the Area Commander gave them a fight. Though he arrived the bank minutes
after the robbery started, he engaged the robbers and forced them to
abort the operation as they had intended to raid all the banks in that
placed. They escaped through the waters and he hired a speed boat that
took some of his men and went after the boys."
When he arrived the
creek where the boys abandoned their boat, he recovered several
military uniforms and a cell phone belonging to one of the robbers,
Blessing Olotu, who was eventually arrested a few days later.
“Meanwhile, when
the SIRT got the intelligence on the plan to rob banks at Seme, the IGP
deployed the SIRT and ensured there was a synergy between all police
formations and other sister agencies. The result is what you have seen.
They didn’t just take down 11 members of his gangs, TK was killed and a
large cache of his arms, ammunition and explosives were recovered”, the source concluded.
Source: Vanguard
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