“Making N1b will make this my last robbery”

The life and times of TK, the militant, pipeline
vandal and robbery kingpin felled by police bullets
in what turned out to be his last robbery.

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.

Read from vanguard