Newsgist-‘I sold Pasuma’s Range Rover Sport for N950,000’

Newsgist-Kasali Adegoke, the leader of the armed robbery gang that robbed popular fuji musician, Wasiu Alabi aka Pasuma, of his 2006 Range Rover Sport, says he sold the vehicle for N950,000.

A search on the Internet by our correspondent, however, suggested that used version of the vehicle sells for N3.5m, while a new one costs between N8m and N9m.

The 32-year-old, who is currently in detention at the Special Anti Robbery Squad, Ogun State, said he sold the car to a receiver at Cotonou.

He said, “I have a receiver at Cotonou who usually calls to place orders for any type of vehicle that he wants. Before we stole Pasuma’s car, my buyer had already told me that he wanted a Range Rover Sport. We were just on the lookout for possible victims when we noticed Pasuma’s car.”

Although based in Ogun State, Adegoke said he usually comes to Lagos to steal choice vehicles.

On the night Pasuma was robbed, Adegoke said he was merely roaming the Ahamddiya area of Lagos along with some members of his gang when the musician was sighted.

Newsgist had on May 29 2013, reported that a nine-man gang attacked the fuji artiste around 9pm, while he was on his way to a show.

Pasuma, who was dispossessed of other valuables in addition to his car, was said to have hidden his face from the robbers while the ordeal lasted. He was dumped in a bush near Ota, Ogun State after being stripped down to his underwear.

Adegoke said, “While he was with us, we had no idea that he was Pasuma. We did not recognise him. It was the next day that we realised that it was Pasuma car we snatched the previous night when the news was all over town.

“By that time, the car was already in Cotonou. We drove it that same night to a border town in Ogun State where one of the receiver’s boys was waiting to drive it back to Cotonu. We were paid N950,000.”

Despite a deformed left hand, Adegoke confessed to having killed over seven policemen during his six-year career as a robber.

The police added that his eight man gang had killed over 20 people.

“I was badly burned as a baby; I was just 13 days old when someone threw a burning material through the window on my bed. By the time I was rescued, the left side of my face and my left hand were badly burned.

“Despite the handicap, I was able to master the art of shooting with an assault rifle. I would rest the gun on the ground while I loaded it and would support it with my deformed hand while I shot,” he said.

The Ogun State Commissioner of Police Mr. IKemefuna Okoye, had last Monday, paraded Adegoke along with three other suspects in Abeokuta.

Led by the SARS Officer-in-Charge, Mohammed Tijani, Adegoke was reportedly arrested in the Obele area, a border town between Nigeria and Benin Republic. He was said to have been critically injured in a shoot out with the police.

Adegoke reportedly led the SARS team to arrest other members of his gang at their hideout in the Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos State.

Okoye had said that the gang members had confessed to killing the former South West Coordinator and Ogun State Commander of the Vehicle Inspection Officer, Mr. Yomi Bamgbose, in 2011, as well as the killing of five policemen attached to the Quick Response Squad at the Ijemo Agbadu and Mowe/Ibafo areas one year ago.

The gang was also said to have allegedly killed about 11 policemen in Kwara and Lagos states and were responsible for the death of five policemen in the Imeko area of Ogun State, in a bullion van attack in September 2011.

They were also said to be responsible for the killing of four members of the Ogun State Vigilance Service and three filling station attendants in Ifo last June.