Robbers: We made over N265m using bank workers

In most of his adult life, Clement Abanara Millions, 42, had never known anything other than war, blood and money. 
After the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration granted amnesty to Niger Delta militants, Millions became confused as to what to do with his life. 
For a man who was used to violence, he decided to join a gang which specialised in bank robbery.

There were other militants, who like Millions, also joined various criminal gangs. 
Apart from robberies, they also engaged in kidnappings and pipeline vandalism. However, Millions belonged to one of the deadliest groups which operated on the waterways and hinterlands.
In some of their operations in 2015, the gang killed many law enforcement agents and vandalised pipelines in Lagos and Ogun States while women and children were also victims of their evil activities. 
Apart from the ransom they collected from families of their victims and money made from oil theft, Millions and his gang made over N265 million from bank robberies. 
Detectives attached to the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase’s Special Intelligence Response Team (SIRT) last year, started trailing and picking the suspected bank robbers one after the other.
Two of the gang’s leaders, Kelly Foto and Millions, had been on the police wanted list before their arrest. Police described Millions as the coordinator of the gang. Foto was arrested in Delta State during a wedding ceremony, “spraying” dollars. It was learnt that Millions, who had been robbing for 20 years before his arrest, was apprehended last week Thursday in Asayande Estate Benin City by operatives of SIRT.
Ironically, Millions’ brother is an Inspector in the Nigeria Police Force. In his confessional statement, Millions reportedly told the police that none of the bank robberies would have been successful if not for the useful tips provided to his gang by bank workers. 
He said: “Kakadu General is more powerful than Kelly Foto.
There’s no bank robbery operation or kidnapping we do without involving Kakadu. If he wasn’t able to go for the operation, he would send some of his experienced boys. These boys are experts in handling arms. They know the creeks and have contacts. “They have contacts working in banks.
The banks contacts usually inform us when there is enough money in the bank vaults and the workable plan for successful operation.” Recollecting how much they made in each of the bank robberies in Lagos and Ogun States, Millions said: “In the Ikorodu First Bank robbery, we took N12m and the second Ikorodu robbery we made away with N62m. In the Festac robbery we went with 13 guns, 26 men and two buses. We made N23m in that operation. In the Agbara robbery. We carted away N66m.”
He however kept mum on the amount made in the Lekki/Ajah robbery. But other gang members pegged it at N15m. As part of the plan to arrest members of the killer gang, SIRT’s operatives were deployed in Port Harcourt on Boxing Day. A key member of the Festac and Agbara bank robberies, Dennis Njiku, 30, said they got N110m in the Festac robbery. Njiku said: “We got N110m in Festac bank robbery. I got N2.5million as my share and was given N1.2million as my share in the Agbara bank robbery.” The gang members became so rich that they built different houses including mansions.
For instance, Millions was arrested in one of his newest buildings. Millions had been described by many eyewitnesses as a “female” member of the gang. Although he is a man but he wore braids whenever they were going for operations and wore gun belts during operations. A police source said:
“Millions is the most experienced person among the bank robbers and the coordinator of the Lekki, Ikorodu, Festac and Agbara bank robberies. He dressed as a woman during all the bank robberies. Millions was also the leader of a kidnapping gang that abducted a Lagos State House of Assembly member and many other prominent citizens in Lagos two years ago.”
Millions and his gang’s modus operandi was to come from Delta State to Lagos State through the waterways. They would anchor in Akodo or Ikoro-du axis and then kidnap their victims in Lagos before taking them through the waterways to their camp in Delta State. Subsequently, they would call their victims’ family members and demand for ransom.
It was learnt that they always insisted on receiving their ransom in Delta State before releasing their victims in Warri. “The IGP’s SIRT arrested four of Millions’ boys in 2013 and stormed his house in Warri, but he had fled. They offered the IG’s team N10m, but they refused to accept the bribe.
They wanted the team to charge them to court through a senior police officer, but the team also turned down the offer,” said the source. Millions has a saw mill company in Benin Republic and has a lot of workers on his pay roll. But none knew he was a robber. He said:
“Benin Republic is the safest place for any wanted criminal to hide. Benin Republic is a no-man’s land, where nobody cares who you are or why you are there.” Millions, who is a chieftaincy title holder in his community, explained that the title given to him came with a lot of added financial burdens. The suspect is seen as a philanthropist in his community.
According to him, part of his dreams was to build a school for the community, but he didn’t achieve this before his arrest. He said that in the beginning of 2016, as people were making New Year resolutions, he also went on his knees, saying, “I vowed to God that I would stop robbing. Unfortunately, I was arrested.”
The father of six said although at a time, the Federal Government was paying militants N65, 000 every month, but he was also doing “black oil and gas business” to augment his income.He said: “I built a mansion and became a philanthropist. I also built a jetty for my people but couldn’t build a school because it was a capital intensive project.”
“In 2014, I was given a chieftaincy title, ‘Ebimewe. But the high financial demands of my new title made me to join a bank robbery gang in order to get enough money to meet with the demand of my new title.” Remembering how he teamed up with other camps to rob banks, the suspect, who said Millions wasn’t a nickname, added:
“There are two generals or leaders. They are Kelly and Kakadu. We have two camps; Dike and Ossy camps. I participated in four bank robbery operations out of the seven led by Kakadu and Kelly.” He said that one John Togo, an ex-militant, initiated him into robbery, adding that he avoided killing security agents and civilians. He said he contemplated quitting robbery when members of his gang started killing law enforcement agents. He said: “I know police would be after us anytime one of their colleagues is killed. I even went to a church, confessed my sins and vowed not to go back to armed robbery.
But our members would come with one reason to make us go for one ‘last operation’. I kept going back because I needed money as a high chief.” He said that it was just last year he took active part in bank robberies, adding that he used to come to Lagos to purposely take part in oil pipeline vandalism.
“I used to bring some jerry cans to Lagos and each jerry can is loaded for N1, 000,” he said. He said he could have walked away from robbery after the first Ikorodu robbery, but, “long throat’ made him to go for the second operation. He added: “I participated in the second Ikorodu robbery because my 500 jerry cans caught fire.
I had one Highlander SUV which I sold for N800, 000. I bought three saw machines and relocated to Benin Republic to be able to monitor my saw mill workers.” He said that because he desperately wanted to quit robbery, he threw away his SIM cards and bought new ones so that his members wouldn’t be able to reach him. On who detonates the dynamites used in blowing banks’ doors and vaults, Millions said: “My department is to ensure the driving of our operational vehicles. I was the one that shared money after the Agbara operation.
We’re the strangers in the camp. We operate with only AK47. The members in the camp operate General Purpose Machine guns. I’m older than Ossy in age, but he is a ‘General’.” He further said that the gang members wore military camouflage to beat security agents.
He said that his wife wasn’t aware that he was into robbery until operatives of SIRT grabbed him. He disclosed that after SIRT operatives started arresting his members, those arrested mentioned his name when they were interviewed by journalists prompting his wife to ask if he was the one. He said he snapped at her, saying there could have been other people bearing a similar name. “She wouldn’t have led policemen to my apartment in Benin if she had known I was a robber,” Millions said. When his wife was interrogated, she said: “I didn’t know my husband was into robbery.
We married in 1999. When I told him that I saw his name in a newspaper, he said he wasn’t the only person called Millions.” It was gathered that Arase has vowed to use Interpol in tracking other fleeing members of the gang. The SIRT has arrested seven people who used to supply arms to the gang.
Millions refused to disclose the number of people he had killed. He however said: “If not by mistake, I will not kill somebody. I went for training as a militant. I was taught how to shoot. I don’t shoot carelessly.” Speaking on why they often set operational vehicles on fire after operations, Millions said: “We do it to conceal the identity of the owner. The owner is usually our member. We compensate him during sharing.”