Since 2010, a dealer in electronic equipment, Samson Igwe, had preyed on unsuspecting women in Lagos and Port Harcourt. He would lure his victims from his hotel room and drug them with Valium 5 before robbing them of their possessions.
Recalling the circumstances that led him to commit crime, Igwe said, “I am an electronics trader based in Accra. I buy electronic goods from Alaba and take them to Accra for sale. That is what I really do for a living. I didn’t start off my life by robbing women; that is not how I make my money. I simply did it for revenge because when I came back to Nigeria in 2010, a lady I had picked up in a club did the same thing to me.
“I returned to Nigeria with about $30,000 in cash after living in South Africa for 10 years. I arrived in the country at about 11 pm and after checking into a hotel in Ikeja, I went to a nearby night club to unwind.”
There, Igwe, 36, met and chatted up an attractive young woman whom he eventually invited to his hotel room. His new friend accepted. When they got to his hotel room, the pair became lovers, getting intimate. Unknown to him, the woman had applied a drug on her breasts that was intended to make her victims sleep off.
“Before we got intimate, I suggested that we freshened up in the bathroom, but she refused. To my surprise, about 10 minutes after I sucked her breast, I became drowsy and slept off. I didn’t wake up till about 6.30 am the next day. By this time, the lady had left with my money and all my valuables. In order not to arouse suspicion, she had left her handbag behind and had told the hotel security that she was going out to buy toothpaste. That was the last time I saw her. I was so enraged that my life savings had been stolen in one night that I swore to do the same thing to every woman I met in night clubs,” he said.
But what started off as one man’s revenge mission eventually attracted three others, who alongside Igwe, decided to form a gang. CRIME DIGEST gathered that the gang had operated for the past two years.
When he was arrested in a hotel at Oregun, Lagos, a few weeks ago, three unconscious women, one of whom had been brought in by another member of the gang, were found in Igwe’s room.
Although he started life again in Ghana as an electronics trader, Igwe did not let go of his dream. CRIME DIGEST learnt that each time Igwe came to Nigeria, he would visit night clubs in either Lagos or Port Harcourt. His victims were usually well dressed women who wore expensive jewellery and carried smart phones. After spending lavishly to convince them that he was a ‘big boy,’ Igwe would take his victims to his hotel room where he proceeded to drug them with three tablets of Valium 5.
He said, “Before I started doing this, I had asked a pharmacist the number of Valium 5 tablets that was required to make a human being sleep for a few hours at a stretch. He told me three tablets would knock a person out for four hours. I first tried it on myself and found that it worked before I started to use it on my victims.
“Whenever I take any girl to my hotel room, I would offer her some wine. In the process of pouring the wine, I would slip the tablets into her glass and after drinking it, the girl would sleep off. While they were asleep, I would take their jewellery and their phones. I admit that I slept with some of these women while they were unconscious but it wasn’t all of them.”
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Umar Manko, confirming the arrest said, “Sometime in August, one of Igwe’s accomplices brought in a lady to his room at a hotel in the Oregun area. The lady, on getting to the room, became suspicious when she discovered that two other ladies seemed to be sleeping in the same room.
“While Igwe and his friend went away from the room briefly, this lady put a call through to a sister of hers, describing her location and voicing her fears. It was this victim’s sister who notified the Special Anti-Robbery Squad and a team was dispatched to the hotel.
“Upon arrival, the SARS team found Igwe, his accomplices and three unconscious ladies at the said hotel. Those girls did not regain consciousness until after 24 hours. Investigation is on to locate the remaining the two members of the group.”
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