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| All items belonging to just one weapon dealer, Tochukwu |
*Recover 14
AK 47 rifles, machine gun, 111 AK47 rifles, and 5,922 ammunition, among others
The Lagos
State Police Command yesterday made a display of the amazing achievements it
recorded a few weeks ago. One of the achievements was the arrest of some of the
major players in the Lagos robbery of September, 9, 2012, which many people in
the state later described as bloody Sunday.
The robbers
on that day had gone through different areas of the metropolis, robbing, shooting,
maiming and killing.
Also arrested
along with the gang of robbers, was another gang, which attacked First bank in
Kwara State and burnt down a police station. The bank was said to have been attacked
with dynamites and policemen killed and several people injured.
On the
fateful day that the gang attacked the First Bank, they were about 17 robbers
that stormed the bank. They allegedly made away with over N18million. The operation
was led by one Paul, who is still at large.
Proudly making
a display of the items recovered from both gangs, the Lagos State Commissioner
of Police, Prince Umar Manko, revealed that the gang which attacked First Bank
in Kwara State, teamed up with another gang, to form the gang that attacked
Lagos metropolis on September 9, 2012.
The items
recovered are; 12 AK 47 rifles, one general purpose machine gun(GPMG), 111 AK
47 rifle magazines, 5,922 rounds of 7.62mm live AK47 rifles ammunition, four
GPMG chain bullet with 400 rounds of live ammunition loaded and 219 unloaded
live ammunition making 619 rounds and180 .9mm live ammunition.
These items
were all property of Emmanuel Tochukwu Nweke, 31. He has been described as a
source and supplier of guns by detectives.
He was the
person that supplied all the weapons to the gangs that attacked Lagos and Kwara
States respectively.
Ever since
the attacks, policemen were said to have worked round the clock in search of
the robbers.
Working on preliminary
investigations and confessions gotten from some suspected robbers, they had
started trailing Tochukwu.
Manko said: “The
efforts of the policemen paid off, when on November 6, 2012, Tochukwu was
tracked to Sea Park Hotel, Asaba, Delta State.
On November 7, 2012, operatives of Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS)
Ikeja, invaded the Hotel and arrested Tochukwu. Recovered from his Mercedes
Benz 230 V-boot, with registration number, Enugu-DA 307 ENU were two AK47
rifles with the serial numbers scrapped. 750 live ammunition and 14 rifle
magazines were also recovered. These items were concealed in a specially
constructed compartment under the back seat of the Benz car.”
Incidentally,
four among the Ak 47 rifles recovered from the member of the gang that attacked
Kwara State belonged to the Kwara State Police Command.
Aside from
Tochukwu, others suspects are; Akindele Akinyemi, 30, Emmanuel Ehianeta alia Arab, 27, Segun Runsewe, 39, Isiaka
Lawal, 55 and Nonso Ndubuisi 26.
Ehianeta
told the Nigerian Compass that after the First Bank robbery, were the
gang carted away N18 million, he was given just N620, 000.
He also
confessed that he bought the machine gun (GPMB) from Tochukwu for N1.8 million.
He told detectives that machine gun was part of the weapon used to attack First
bank.
Ehianeta is
diploma holder, who for reasons best known to him, veered into Yahoo
Yahoo business, but later went into robbery and took to it like duck to
water.
The Kwara State
bank robbers met their waterloo after the bank’s CCTV captured some of their
faces on the day they attacked the bank. As detectives studied the CCTV footage
and one face immediately registered. It was the face of Akindele Akinyemi, who
incidentally, had been on the list of the most wanted armed robbery kingpin in
Lagos Command.
“Akindele
Akinyemi was lured by Officer in Charge of SARS, Ikeja, SP Abba Kyari and his
men, from where he was hibernating in Cotonou, Republic of Benin and arrested
with the three other members of the gang,” said Manko. “The suspects have
confessed to series of bank, bullion Van and Bureau De Change robberies in
Lagos, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo, Kogi and Edo States, among other states.”
He added
that Tochukwu confessed that he used to import AK 47 rifles, GPMGS, Rocket
launchers etc hidden in sacks containing onions, sent through waybill from
Benin Republic.
Speaking with
journalists, Tochukwu insisted that he was not the brain behind the arms
running. He said the gun running deal was owed by one Alhaji Zulo, who lives in
Benin Republic.
According to
him, he was an ‘errand boy’ to Alhaji Zulo and only usually collected his share
based on commissioned placed on any of the guns Alhaji asked him to sell.
He further
said that he used to supply based on demand and specifications from clients.
His words: “I
met Alhaji through a friend at a motor park in Cotonou. Once anybody needs a
gun, the person will tell me the type, I will call Alhaji. If Alhaji asks me to
sell for 3000 cephas, I might decide to sell for 5000 cephas. Whatever I placed
on top, is my share. My wife doesn’t know that I deal in guns. She only knows
that I deal in cars. I don’t know why I left the car business for selling of
guns. The truth is that I don’t even know how to shoot or use a gun. I only
sell the guns. I’ve never shot anybody, neither have I ever gone for any
robbery operation. This gang came to me that they needed guns for oil bunkery.
They didn’t tell me it was robbery they wanted the guns for!”
Manko said
that Tochukwu was now trying to assist police trace Alhaji Zulo and other
persons who had bought several rifles and rocket launchers from him.
“He earlier
led police to arrest one Nonso Ndubuisi in Onitsha, who he supplied four AK 47
rifles and the said Nonso has also made confessional statements,” said Manko.
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