Police arrest PDP chieftain’s son for robbery

A 23-year old armed robbery suspect Rafiu Ayinde whose gang and some members of the public mistake as the most dangerous  armed robbery kingpin, Abiodun Ogunjobi aka Abey Godogodo has said that he should not be associated with the king of the underworld because he cannot fit into his shoes.He however claimed that ever since Godogodo became a public figure, anyone he attempts to rob will never resist because they felt that he (Godogodo)has escaped from prison again.In an interview with Saturday Sun, Ayinde who is the son of a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP chieftain in Lagos said he may look like Godogodo but he is yet to  reach the kingpin’s level of notoriety. According to him “Please, don’t relate me with the armed robbery kingpin Godogodo. I have not reached that level. People are calling and addressing me as Godogodo’s junior brother to my greatest surprise because I  have one eye, I am not his brother not to talk of of being a member of his gang. The difference is very clear. See, I don’t know Godogodo. I have not reached his level. I have been hearing of him but I have never come close to him.“Even if we are from the same state, because it is God, the creator who decides where one will come from in this world, we are not from the same place. I am from Ijebu Igbo but Godogodo is from Abeokuta.”While giving an insight into his background and how he came into robbery, Godogodo junior said his journey to the unknown world began when he lost his father while he was still in primary school.His words: “Let me tell you more about myself to enable you know the difference. I was a vulcanizer when my father died. My mother is still alive. I learnt vulcanizing for two good years to enable me be of assistance to my poor family. I learnt vulcanizing work at Bariga, Lagos from 2007 to 2009. My father died when I was in primary school, I had no choice but to drop because the breadwinner is dead. Our father was very kind and loving. He was very caring. He warned us against smoking hemp and following bad company.“When he died we had no choice but to struggle to survive. He loved his children and our mother and he wanted the best for all of us. He was a politician, the campaign manager for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at Bariga, Lagos. Unfortunately he became sick and died. After his death the centre could no longer hold and to assist the family I learnt vulcanizing.“When I finished learning vulcanizing, I had no money to build my own workshop hence I had to join someone who had established to be his assistant.He used to give me N1,000 or N1,500 daily depending on how work moved that day. Whenever there was enough work I would go with N1,500 or a little thing above it.“In order not to disappoint my parents especially my mother I started saving money. The daily contribution which I started helped me a lot to assist my mother to keep our family going despite the death of my father.Unfortunately, when my partner discovered that I was doing daily contribution  he took over the money I have saved by conspiring with my co-vulcanizer to take over the whole money I saved on the pretence that I was owing him N90,000.00. I did not know that he would claim the whole money I was saving until the “Alajo” guy told me that he had been paying my partner the whole money I had been saving.“He said the money I had been saving was withdrawn by my partner who told him that he was the owner of the money and that I was saving the money to repay his debt. His name is Ibrahim. I used to save N500 every day but I did not collect a dime out of all the money before I was arrested. The wicked thing about it is that the whole money was saved with my name yet I did not collect a dime.“When I did not want the cheating to frustrate me I used the small money I saved to look for motorcycle to drive as commercial motorcycle (okada) but I did not know that the person that would come to my rescue was a criminal.“My master Jubi aka Alara “wonder” who wanted to show me how to survive only ended up leading me to the crime world. I worked like eight months as assistant vulcaniser before Jubi decided to help me to start riding commercial motorcycle. He said I should be delivering N500 to him every day.”Unlike Godogodo who lost one of his eyes to bullets during one of his robbery operations, Ayinde said he lost his in a motorcycle accident. “When I got accident with the commercial motorcycle, the side mirror broke to pieces and destroyed my right eye. The exhaust pipe of the motorcycle also wounded me on my left leg. I was hospitalized for many months but at the end of medical treatment I lost one of my eyes. It is this one eyed face that my colleagues saw and started calling me Godogodo’s junior brother.“I am an armed robber but I am not as dangerous as Godogodo. Godogodo and his gang members use AK47 rifles but I and my gang members use locally made guns. Our pilot (driver) does not use gun. We are five in our gang and four of us use a gun each. You can see that there is a big difference between my gang and Godogodo’s gang. We don’t kill policemen, we don’t kill our victims. we don’t rape victims. We are not as violent as Godogodo and his gang members.”On how he joined the armed robbery gang he said, “when I had accident I went back to do my vulcanizing job but was not getting much money from it.It was my going back to commercial motorcycle riding that I met the bad boys at Oyingbo, Ebute Meta area. We used to go to Otto Hotel in Oyingbo-Ido park area, that was where I met the bad boys. They used to drink and smoke heavily there. In fact, you need to be a bad boy for you to follow other boys who used to assemble there.My gang members are Semiu, Jubi aka Alara (Wonder boy), Lambert, Ejo aka Snake.”“It was Jubi that I personally know as my own master who gave me commercial motor-cycle and later introduced me officially to the gang, my first gang.I have participated in over five armed robbery operations. The first operation Jubi asked me to carry him to Sango Otta on my commercial motorcycle. After the operation he gave me N5,000 cash. Later I was fully initiated after this first operation. The second operation I participated was inside Oyingbo. We stole N80,000, two mobile phones. They gave me N8,000. The third operation was at Apapa road, Ebute Metta, at the end of the operation I got N15,000.00. The fourth operation was inside Yaba. It was house to house armed robbery. We collected about 15 handsets. The fifth one, was inside Yaba. I went home with N10,000.The sixth was the operation that made police to arrest me while four other members escaped. We were planning on how to go and rob when police stormed our den and arrested  me while the rest disappeared.”On how he was arrested he said, it was a SARS team led by Supol Adetarami Adegbehin that stormed their den and arrested him. “I should have escaped if SARS operatives had not come close to me and pointing gun at me and warning me not to run or they will kill me”, he added.On why people were calling him Godogodo’s junior brother he said, “People are just calling me Godogodo but I don’t know him. I belong to a different gang not Godogodo’s gang. My gang members used to call me Godogodo’s junior brother but I am not his junior brother. Even the so called Godogodo does not know me. May be it is because I am a one-eye gang leader lilke Godogodo who. I don’t want to be in Godogodo’s shoes. They are too big for me. I have repented. I will not be an armed robber again. I regret participating in an armed robbery operations that brought about my suffering. I am not a wicked robber.”When contacted to confirm Ayinde’s confession, the state police public relations officer, Ngozi Braide said the suspect has been cooperating since his arrest, adding that the other four at large will not escape the dragnet already spread for them.

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