‘I Put N20m Stolen From Bank In Cocaine’

Abdulhameed Ibrahim, a robbery suspect, on Wednesday told journalists how he invested over N20 million stolen from careless cashiers in banks into a cocaine business.

Ibrahim who was a former staff of of the Saudi Arabia embassy however angrily retorted that he was not an armed robber when the Lagos State commissioner of police Fatai Owoseni suggested he was one.

He explains that he only steals money from careless banks and cashiers and has invested the money buying cocaine which he subsequently sells in Abuja.

“I have made over N20 million since I started stealing in banks. I used the money I got from the bank to buy cocaine. I sell the cocaine in Abuja. I made double the price I bought the drug. I started the operation last month when I came to Lagos from Plateau State.

“Before I went into the bank, I have a friend called Segun; he used to prepare the ground for me with the assistance of an insider in the bank.”

Owoseni told journalists that Ibrahim was caught after he stole N1.5 million from a bank in Ogudu. He said that Ibrahim was an unrepentant and remorseless robber who had served time in Plateau and Kaduna for a similar offence.

The commissioner said the suspected robber was arrested after CCTV footage in the bank showed him stealing the money.

But Ibrahim said the bank cashier was careless and was busy reading a novel when he took the money from her desk.

“I went into the bank to deposit money in the bulk room. When I got there, I discovered some amount of money was carelessly placed on the counter. I smartly took it without the female cashier seeing me. She was engrossed in a novel she was reading. I got home and counted the money; it was N1.5 million. I walked out of the bulk room and nobody stopped me.

“The personnel of the internal security of that bank just don’t understand their job. The bank where I stole the money is careless. They display their money without minding who comes into the banking hall. I have studied those at the bank; if I had another opportunity, I would love to go to the same bank branch to steal. They are carelessness.”

Ibrahim who was deported from Saudi Arabia in 2011 explained that sometimes he used the drug he buys with the money himself:

“I love hard drugs. Since I came back to Nigeria, I’ve been into this act of stealing to sustain my drug life. Police in Lagos have stopped my activities.

“I was called through the hotel intercom that I have a visitor. When the policeman spoke to me through the intercom, I immediately sensed he was a policeman. I came out and surrendered myself. I knew I had come to the end of the road.”

Source: The New Telegraph