How robber killed police officer for ‘snatching’ his wife

Facts have emerged on how an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Mr. John Orubabe, formerly attached to the anti-robbery section at Area ‘F’, Ikeja, Lagos, was killed by an armed robbery suspect for allegedly snatching his wife.



Orubabe was killed in December 2012 with his daughter, who was a serving National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member.

The slain police officer’s second wife, whom he allegedly snatched from the suspected robber, was said to have told the police, how the incident occurred.

Police are now on a manhunt for the suspect and his gang.

It was gathered that trouble started for the slain officer after he and his team arrested a suspected robber who was allegedly terrorising residents.

Sources said the Area Commander at Area ‘F’, ordered him to charge the suspect to court, but he refused.

While the suspect was in the cell, his wife was bringing food to him. At that time, the suspect and the late Orubabe had begun negotiating his bail.

It was learnt that the late officer fell in love with the suspect’s wife and started making love advances to her. And when she told her husband, who was desperate for freedom, the latter told his wife to welcome the policeman’s advances.

The late Orubabe, it was learnt, eventually married her and got an apartment for her. He was said to have released the suspect after taking N1.5million from him.

A police source said: “On the fateful day he was killed, he went to his second wife’s place. In the middle of the night, he woke up and went to his first wife’s place. They were sleeping at night when their generating set went off. They were all surprised because the generator was filled with fuel before they went to bed. He had three children from his first wife.

“The first child was a girl, who had graduated and was even then serving. It was the girl who went down to check on the generator. Immediately she reached there, she noticed three guns and attempted to run back into the house, shouting “armed robbers … armed robbers!” They shot her in the back.

“The shout had already attracted ASP Orubabe, who rushed out with his service pistol. He shot into the darkness and watched, but there was nobody. There was silence. He didn’t know that the robbers were hiding. As soon as he stepped further out, they shot him repeatedly and left. The daughter died on the way to the hospital.”

It was learnt that the police carried the corpse of the slain officer to his village, but his kinsmen took the corpse and insisted on burying him according to tradition, which demanded the participation of his two wives. Weeks after the burial, his second wife had a psychotic breakdown and soon started singing like a canary. She confessed it was her husband, the robber, who killed the late officer.

She reportedly insisted that she was never happy with Orubabe, adding that the two children he had for him, were biological children of her robber husband.

According to sources, she said that the plan was to kill the police officer at her apartment, but she suggested the home of the first wife to avoid suspicion.