The gang, described as notorious, was alleged to be behind the series of criminal activities across South-South and South East parts of the country. The gang’s arrest finally meant the checking of three years of unceasing terror.
Members of the gang often dressed as women, wearing long wigs for operations. It was gathered that after their arrest, IRT operatives discovered that a local kingpin, working with them, often gave them his car to move their arms.
Operatives said that the gang had killed over 20 policemen and a bank manager. Some of the items recovered from them are three AK47 rifles, one LAR rifle, 12 magazines, 310 rounds of live ammunition, one dynamite, a rifle servicing equipment, Toyota Highlander, Toyota Venza and a Ford Edge.
They lost 70 loaded magazines and AK 47 rifles to some soldiers when they went for sea piracy along Nembe Creek, Bayelsa State, in April. The suspects in IRT’s custody are Gogo Daniel Umeh, aka Full Payment, Ikadoi Michael Isere aka White Witch and Ifeanyi Kalu.
The crackdown on the gang started after the IGP, Solomon Arase, ordered IRT to hunt down criminals causing mayhem in the areas. The IGP team landed at Port Harcourt, went undercover and began to pick up the suspects.
Umeh, the leader of the gang bragged that he was a philanthropist, a good man at heart. His words: “I gave N100, 000 to an orphanage home and contributed N150, 000 to the roofing of my church.
Each time I go for operation and am successful, I would buy bags of rice, noodles, diapers, baby milk and give some money to orphanage homes. There was a time I bought a set of drums for a prophet. The prophet used to pray for me.”
The suspects confessed to being behind two bullion van robberies at Diamond Bank, Trans Amadi branch, in 2014 and 2015 respectively. In 2014, the gang robbed a bank, located along Azikiwe Road Port- Harcourt.
There was also a bullion van robbery in U.S.T, Port Harcourt in 2015. They further confessed to participating in the bullion van robbery, at Igrita Round, Airport Road, Port Harcourt in 2014. In that particular robbery, they killed several policemen.
There was the 2016 robbery attack on Fidelity Bank, GRA, Port Harcourt and a foiled kidnapping attempt leading to the burning of a police patrol vehicle along Psychiatric Road, Rumuigbo, Port Harcourt. They have also robbed First Bank.
A police source said: “The suspects are still helping the police in tracking down other members of the gang. These men have robbed several banks. The bank robberies were organised by one Promise.
He was an IT (intern) student of of a first generation bank, Ikko branch. He organised the bank robbery and several other bank robberies, including the latest one in Fidelity Bank.
They have killed over 20 policemen; including an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Mr. Bamidele Mohammed, Inspector Austen Moore and Corporal Prince Tigabara.
They were killed, while escorting foreign currencies belonging to Starling. The region manager, Femi Olokun, was killed.” The gang members, in March 2014, attacked a police checkpoint along NTA Obiri Ikwere Junction, Port Harcourt, killing two policemen, Jonah Oletu and Corporal Paul Nnaa.
The gang disappeared with the slain policemen’s rifles. The gang, in January 2014, also kidnapped a worker of Agip Oil Company. She paid N16m ransom before she was released.
In December 2013, two gang members, Umeh and Jacop Boma Agbara, led their members and robbed a supermarket along Obasanjo Way. They killed Inspector Dennies Akapan, Sergeant Ekwere Epoulo and Corporal Okougor Nyambi.
The gang went away with the three AK47 rifles. Operatives of the Department of State Service (DSS), in 2014, arrested Umeh and charged him to court for kidnapping. But for reasons unknown, he was released. On February 26, 2014, Umeh and his gang kidnapped Director of Prepay Hotel, Nkechi Chika and one Honourable Chinyere Igwe, where they were drinking.
The victims were taken away through the waterways. N12m was paid before they were released. In April 2012, the gang kidnapped a certain chief from Ogbogoro community in Oboio-akpor Local Government Area. They took him across the water and held him captive for three days. The gang later collected N5m ransom.
They attacked a bank in Owerri in April 2014, carting away N5m. In June of the same year, they stormed First Bank, Enugu. One of the gang members, Kio, was killed.
The members left his corpse on the bank premises. Umeh, 30, graduated from River State Polytechnic in 2013. He said his journey into crime started in 2012, while he was still a student. He started as a cult member. He became friends with one Fabian.
They were in school when Fabian became actively involved in kidnapping. Fabian worked with Abiye. Umeh said: “When I joined the gang, Abiye led us to kidnap a 15-year-old boy around Air Force area, Aba Road. We kept the boy in our hideout at Rumigbo.
The hideout, actually a house, belonged to Kio. We kept the boy for five days and released him after we collected N2m ransom. My share was N150, 000.” He went for his second operation, which was at First Bank. Suspects He said: “We went with four rifles and dynamites.
I was given N2m after the operation. I used my share to pay rent and do some other things. We went to Enugu State and attempted to rob another First Bank. But on getting there, Kio tried to enter into the bank with a rifle; he was shot dead by one of the policemen on guard.
Abiye suggested we should go to Owerri to rob another bank. He called one of his scouts known as Promise, an Ogoni boy. Promise had once worked in a bank. He was a very resourceful informant.”
According to him, three days after Promise was called, he brought information on how to attack the bank. Umeh narrated: “We got to the bank around 7:pm. Promise told us to look out for the manager of the bank who usually holds the key to the vault.
There were no security men at the bank. Our target was the vault. We had to break the back door with a sledge hammer to gain entrance into the bank. We found a small amount of money.
What we found wasn’t up to N10m. I was given N800, 000. When we returned to PH, Fabian took me, Kennedy and two other guys from Kalabari and we kidnapped a woman at Rupkokwu, Port Harcourt. It was the Kalabari guys that knew the woman.
We took her across the river into Tombia Forest. We had a base there. It was Fabian and one of the Kalabari boys that negotiated with the woman’s husband. We collected N12m ransom. I was given N3m.
I brought a car and used the remainder to take care of myself.” In February 2016, the gang attacked Fidelity Bank, Obagi Street, GRA, Port Harcourt. They blew up the bank’s door with dynamites and entered.
They shattered the vault and carted away N24m. They shot two persons. Before leaving, the gang destroyed all the CCTV cameras and took away the DVR decoder.Two policemen who were stationed at the bank were injured.
Promise, who monitored the bank for two weeks before the operation, told the gang to ensure the operations manager of the bank did not leave the bank or the operation would fail.
They succeeded. According to him, he wanted to quit last year, after he heard that there was a vacancy at Total and that members of Obagi-Omoku community had chances of being employed.
When he told Fabian, he was furious. He and Fabian had already started oil bunkering business. Fabian wanted them to face the oil bunkering and forget about trying to get decent jobs. But Umeh said he refused to listen.
He said: “I was tired of armed robbery and kidnapping. I refused. Fabian then set me up. He told one of his brothers, working with the DSS that I had links with two notorious armed robbers known as Raul and Power. I spent two weeks in the DSS custody and was later transferred. I was charged to court and remanded in prison.
I spent over nine months in prison before I got a lawyer who filed a bail motion on my behalf and I was released.” When he was released, he wanted to go back to oil bunkering business, but some boys warned him not to come to their area. One of his friends, Chike, told him that he had stolen two rifles from ‘General Fly’s’ camp, and wanted Umeh to join him.
Their first operation was at Ogbogoro Oboio-Apkor Local Government Area, Rivers State. They kidnapped a man who was in his early 40s. Umeh recounted: “I invited Kennedy and one Viking member, Boma, for the kidnapping.
We got about N1.5m from that deal. We used N1m to buy two rifles. After that, we went for a job at Rukpoku and kidnapped a lady. That was when, Ikadoi Isere, aka White Witch, joined us. I knew him through his brother, IJB. IJB is also a member of Viking; his brother approached me and said I should carry him along. I had become the leader of the group. Later, we met one James.
It was Kennedy who brought James into the gang and he brought a job. He said money would be moved from a bank at Alakaya off Trans-Amadi to PH International Airport. James monitored the movement of the money from the bank.
We intercepted the vehicle carrying the money at Iguruta Roundabout, Airport Road. “Kennedy blocked the road with a car and we jumped out. I tried shooting, but my rifle didn’t shoot. Chike came down and he was shot.
He fell down. Boma and White Witch rained bullets on the vehicle carrying the money. It was foreign currencies. When we fired into the vehicle, some of the money got damaged. I got N4.5m.
I gave Chike N4.5m because of his injury. I gave Kennedy, Boma and White Witch, N3m each. James who brought the job got N1.5m because he was the one who trailed the movement of the money. I bought a Lexus SUV for N2m.
I also gave some little money to my mum and sister. Seven months later, James called and said that he had another job at Diamond Bank, Trans-Amandi branch.” The suspect said they were five on that operation and attacked a bullion van trying to offload money at the bank. When they got to the bank, James and Boma went in with two short guns. They pretended they wanted to use the bank’s ATM gallery.
When they got close to where the money was being offloaded, they started shooting. “Kennedy, White Witch and I drove very close to the bank and loaded some of the money into our car.
The bullion van was big and it carried lots of cash. We got about N75m. I got N15m as my share. I gave White Witch, Boma, Kennedy and James, N12m each. I also gave Chike who wasn’t around and the person who brought the job, N10m each.
After sharing that money I told all members of the gang to go and look for what to do with their lives. “I was no longer interested in the business and God had given me all I was looking for.
After given aids to children at the orphanage, I used part of the money to rent an apartment at Ajao Estate, Lagos. I paid for two years. I bought furniture and other properties. I bought two plots of land in Bayelsa. I invested the rest in oil bunkering.
White Witch took me to his uncle, who was into bunkering. The man assisted me to get into the business.” When it was election time, the gang regrouped and teamed up with politicians. They pledged their support to different politicians. “White Witch told me that he wanted to become a councillor in his local government.
We then met with his local government chairman and pledged our loyalty to him. We also met with some House of Reps members from his constituency. We promised to support them.
At that time, we were very broke. James called that there was job for us. A month before the election, we had no money to fulfil our promises. We went for an operation at UST Campus, PH.” Umeh said that in that operation, the gang trailed a bullion van carrying money into the bank.
They succeeded, but while trying to escape, White Witch was shot. He added: “We tried to escape, but policemen kept chasing us. They shot the booth of the vehicle. One of the money fell. We didn’t stop.
Police shot all the four tyres. We eventually stopped and snatched another car and escaped. We abandoned a rifle and a lot of magazines. We got about N39m from that operation.
I got the highest share of N10m and gave N6m to the rest of the gang including Chike and the guys who brought the job. I used part of my money to mobilise people to vote for PDP although I was given just N1m for the job. But it wasn’t enough. I also invested part of that money in the bunkering business.”http://newtelegraphonline.com/how-we-organised-bullion-van-robberies-killed-20-policemen/
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