11 Child Robbers Arrested In Ibadan

The Oyo State Police Command is set to rehabilitate 11 child robbers aged between 12 and 14 who were arrested in Ibadan on June 15 for conspiring and invading a house around the Challenge Area of Ibadan, where they stole the sum of N11,000.

The State Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Katsina, disclosed this on Thursday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan.

“Based on information, the Anti-Robbery Squad of the command was sent out immediately and they were surprised to see kids of 12 and 14 years of age coming out to make confessional statements,” he said.

Katsina, who also expressed pity on the plight of the kids, explained that they voluntarily narrated to the police details about their activities.

He lamented that the involvement of the kids in robbery activities could be attributed to lack of parental care and poverty.

“Most of these children are from broken homes and I wish parents can learn from the plight of these kids and take proper care of their children. One thing that keeps disturbing me is the voluntary narration and sincerity of the kids. They have no shelter of any sort and to them, their future starts and ends on the bridge. Their only means of livelihood is to savage innocent members of the public, be involved in pick pocketing, robbery and related criminal activities,” he said.

Katsina noted that 90 per cent of the kids arrested were not residents or indigenes of Oyo State.

“Some of them are from Benin Republic, in search of greener pastures in Nigeria, in a negative way,” he said.

He added that one of the 11 kid robbers, a nine-year-old boy, was apprehended in Ogbomoso in a robbery-related conduct.

“In the course of the arrest, he led us to six other members of his group, where four of them were minors and the two others, adults. The nine-year-old boy is from Kwara State, as we got to know from his confession. He confessed that his father was living happily with his mother, until he married a second wife. As a result of that, there was a problem and the mother moved out with the kid robber and relocated to Ogbomoso,” he said.

The commissioner noted that the 11 arrested minors are being taken care of, adding that the state governor, Abiola Ajimobi, has promised to assist in their rehabilitation.