After months of frantic search for the fleeing member of the armed robbery gang which raided a Bureau de Change at the Murtala Mohammed Airport last year, the Lagos State Police Command yesterday paraded the elusive member of the gang who had been at large.

The suspect, Samuel Mayegun popularly known as Asiwaju, was arrested alongside Abiodun Adegayo, Ezekiel Anthony, Ibrahim Sado and Femi Osiyelu, at the Ikorodu area of the state.

The eight-man airport robbery gang had on February 1 and March 13 last year, carried out a well-coordinated armed robbery attacks on a bureau de change at the airport, carting away over N500 million.

Although the SP Abba Kyari-led Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) carried out subsequent raids and arrested seven of the gang members, one of the kingpins, Mayegun, went into hiding.

The 30-year-old graduate of building and quantity survey from Moshood Abiola Polytechnic was however weekend, arrested by SARS operatives at the Ikorodu area of Lagos while he was planning another operation with another gang.

Confirming the arrest, the state Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, said the suspects were arrested based on a tip-off by a credible source.

He said: "On that fateful day, we received a tip-off at about 2.00am that the notorious armed robber had left his hideout in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State for Ikorodu where they were planning a mega operation the next day.

"We recovered one General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMP), one AK47 rifle with serial number 533124, two double-barrelled locally-made pistols, 10 GPMG and eight AK47 magazines fully loaded respectively and 32 live cartridges.

"During interrogation, Mayegun confessed to the robberies at the airport where a bureau de change was robbed and money running into millions were carted away and he admitted getting N45 million as his share of the loot.

"He had recruited other gang members to continue his nefarious acts because he thought the police have forgotten him being the only member of the airport robbery gang that eluded arrest."

Manko said the suspect also confessed to participating in other robberies in both Lagos and some South-west states including a huge bank robbery in Kwara State.

Speaking to THISDAY, the suspect said he had invested his share of the stolen N45 million airport loot but was forced to go into hiding after SARS arrested seven other members of his gang.