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| Princewill Arinze Eze |
Mr Princewill
Arinze Eze
aka Senator Nwobodo, is a man many Nigerians will not forget in a hurry.
Eze, from Imo State, married
with five kids; four sons and a daughter had often described himself as a
businessman. He would be later alleged by police to be a ‘career suspected
criminal.’
He
had been arrested at least four times for different times, by different
security agencies, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC). But like a cat with nine lives, Eze had always managed to land back
on his feet.
He was alleged of many crimes, among which was wearing
of EFCC reflective vests to rob, steal and dupe unsuspecting Nigerians. His
major targets were operators of Bureau De Change.
Eze, 55, was
arrested along with Amira Abdallahi 32, Daniel Okpara 30, Paul Irior 37, Bassey
Williams Ekpenyoung 39 and Royal Nwabuike 32.
He was said to have been arrested several times for
robbery, but he always seemed seem to have a penchant for escaping convictions,
earning him the nickname, ‘cat with nine lives.’
Police said: “The suspect goes about in a tinted
car, fitted with a radio base, where police radio messages are intercepted. The
car also has siren which blared whenever Eze was on the move. He uses EFCC
uniforms, handcuffs and guns to rob Bureau De Change operators in Abuja and
Lagos State of foreign currencies.
“Recovered from the suspects are; Bryco 59 pistol
with serial no. 930945 with six rounds of 5.56mm live ammunition, single barrel
pistol cut to size with four live cartridges, and three Toyota Highlander
jeeps. The first is ash colour, marked LSR11DB. The second is maroon colour
marked LSR 671DK, another maroon colour marked KTU 380DK. Police also recovered
a Toyota Sienna 2012 model, marked JJJ424CQ, Toyota 4 Runner, marked KRD 449DG,
one Toyota Camry Saloon car unregistered, N4 million cash and some foreign
currencies.”
Eze was arrested after Assistant Commissioner of
Police (ACP) Mr Abba Kyari, tracked him to his home at VGC Ajah.
Chatting
with journalists back then, Eze said: “I have been into this business for quite some time now. I was
arrested four years ago by SARS operatives and charged to court over similar
issues. I have been arraigned in courts over seven times but since there wasn’t
any prosecutor and paper to prosecute me on the cases, I was bailed and told to
go.”
Eze had earlier been arrested in
2014 by the EFCC for fraud. On February 20, 2014, three gunmen in police uniform
snatched Eze, from a prison warder at the Igbosere area of Lagos State, while
being taken to court.
After his
arrest by SARS, before he was charged to court, he claimed that he paid EFCC and
prison warders N10million each, to snatch him on the way to the Igbosere court.
While in
SARS custody, Eze said: “I’ll never come back to SARS office again in Jesus
name!”
And that
is what exactly happened. Eze, who had been standing trial over alleged robbery
and kidnapping died in Maximum Prison last week Tuesday. He wouldn’t be going
anywhere again.
A source
said: “He died of diabetes. His family is alleging poor medical treatment. He
died within three days after he took ill. The family went to prison, demanding
to take his corpse for burial, but the prisons authority refused. They said it
belonged to government. Before he died, he said that he regretted his action
and that God should forgive him and his gang members who were still at large.
“He said
his gang members should stop crime because it doesn’t pay. He said everything
he had, he had lost. He said that even if he came out from prison, he would be
coming out with nothing. Then he died.”
According
to the source, Eze’s trial had been going on at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi,
Lagos, under Justice…
In his
last courting, Eze and one of his victims were said to have enacted a mild
drama in the court. Eze had denied defrauding the victim and the victim, angry
laid a curse on him.
“The said
let me see if you would use your leg to walk back to this court in the next
hearing if you didn’t defraud me,” said a source.
It was
also gathered that Eze changed series of lawyers, claiming that he could defend
himself in court. One of the lawyers he changed is Mr Deji Rowland.
Recalling
his encounter with Eze, Rowland said: “What happened was that he briefed us; we
gave him our bill. He paid part of the bill. We didn’t know he had other cases
in court.”
He said
that Eze briefed them on his others cases and even though they were not
conversant with it, they tried do their best. Rowland said they represented
him, even though he didn’t pay for those cases.
Rowland
said: “At a time, he just stood up and said he was capable of representing
himself. He said it in the open court. I was even signaling to him to be
mindful of what he was saying. The judge said that if the defendant had
disengaged us and could represent him, then that what we should do. We backed
out; we pursued the first case until it got to Directorate of Public
Prosecution (DPP). The DPP advice came; he had a case to answer in other
matters. That was how he started sending threat messages to me; he said that I
should refund money the money he paid us.”
According
to the Nigerian Prisons Service spokesman, Francis Enobore, Eze died last week.
He said: “He
took ill and was taken to the prison’s hospital. When they discovered his
situation was getting serious, they moved to Naval Hospital in Ojo. We maintain
a very good working relationship with government hospitals. Whenever we
discovered an inmate is ill and our medical facility can’t cope, we move such
inmates. It was at the naval hospital that he gave up. The doctor there
diagnosed diabetes mellitus type 2 and renal failure. These are serious ailments.”
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