There is one
thing that made Emmanuel Tochukwu Nweke and Emmanuel Ehianeta alias Arab,
stands out among other suspected robbers on the parade ground; they were good looking
men.
With their
looks, they could have gone into the path modeling, if not other lofty jobs,
but both men had taken rather gotten hood winked by the glitze and glamour of
men of the underworld.
Since they
took to crime, like fish to water, they had painted different states in Nigeria
red, leaving sorrow, tears and blood.
While Arab
and his gang had often attacked and operated like they were acting out a
Hollywood movie, Tochukwu had stood behind the curtains, like a manager,
watching the show and supplying the weapons to use and make sure the robbery
operations were successful.
The Lagos
State Police Command last week Tuesday, made a display of the cache of arms
recovered from the gang and subsequent bursting of the robbery ring.
One of the
achievements of the police command 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 robbery.
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.
Arab 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.
Arab is a 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.
Segun
Runsewe, 39, is the herbalist who police alleged use to prepare charm for
Emmanuel Ehianeta before he goes with gang for operation.
Runsewe said that he met Arab
through a pastor.
His words: “There’s this pastor who used to come to me
for an assistant in my town at Ishara, Ogun State. It was the pastor who
brought Arab to me. Arab wanted charms for fortification and to appease the
gods of iron, Ogun. When he came, he asked me if I could appease the Ogun on his behalf, I said
yes. I didn’t know what he did for a living. When the pastor brought him to me
for the fortification, I thought it was one of those customers who patronized
me for different kind of solutions to their problems. That was why I did not doubt
the pastor when he initially brought Arab to me.
“After the fortification, he
came again to my place. This time he came with a bag filled with objects. He
asked me to keep it for him. No! I don’t keep guns for Arab and his gang.”
Police however explained that Runsewe’s
assistant herbalist, Isiaka Lawal gang’s armourer.
The Nigerian Compass further heard that
whenever the gang was ready to go for an operation, the members will alert
Lawal, who would bring the guns to meet them at a designated venue.
Lawal confessed to keeping the
guns for Arab, adding that each time he keeps the guns for Arab, the robber always
compensated him money. He guessed that
the total sum he had collected so far could not be more than N70, 000.
He quickly added that the
money was not part of his share of loots the robbers returned with, but a sort
of, thank you money.”
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