How we killed policemen escorting Total Oil Nigeria managers

By Juliana Francis

Operatives attached to the Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence, Response Team, IRT, have arrested two men who admitted to killing three policemen escorting senior workers of Total Oil Nigeria. 

ivilian driver along Woji area of Port-Harcourt, Rivers State. The civilian killed during the attack was later identified as a driver to the vehicle, while the AK-47 rifles in possession of the policemen were all carted away by the suspects.

The suspects have been identified as Godwill Jackson 22 and Dumlebabari Mbane 28. Mbane said: “The last operation we went for was at Woji area of Port Harcourt. We were four that went for the operation. We snatched a sienna car and used it to rob a super market at Ada George. I don’t know the exact amount we took from that shop before we moved to the next shop at Woji. At the Woji shop, we robbed them of cash and other valuables.
We took everything to Elechi where we shared all our loots. On that last operation, we attacked some policemen. We accosted the policemen on the road, in Woji area and killed them. Smart and Ibinabo took the rifles of the policemen. I was later given one of their rifles.” The downfall of the suspects started in November, after IRT operatives arrested them for another crime, but later found out during investigation that they were part of a gang members that killed three police escorts and a civilian driver. The gang allegedly specialised in snatching Toyota Sienna vans and robbing super markets in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

A police source said: “The policemen and the civilian lost their lives while providing security escort to top managers working with Total Oil Nigeria Plc. The managers and their entourage, who were returning from a courtesy visit, when they were attacked in September 2018, after the civilian driver missed his way and veered into Woji area of Port Harcourt, through Ada-George in a bid to reverse.
The death of the three policemen was said to have pained the IG so much, that he ordered the IRT, led by a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Abba Kyari, to take the investigation as a special one and fish out the killers of the policemen. The police initially thought the policemen were killed when the suspects attempted to abduct the management men of Total Oil Nigeria.

The IRT operatives were still investigating the murder of the three policemen and the driver, when they got another information that a British-Nigeria National, Professor Mrs. Belgaum had been abducted. A team was immediately ordered to follow the trail of the kidnappers of Belgaum before it goes cold. It was in the course of keenly following the trail that IRT men stumbled on Jackson and Mbane, thinking they were just car snatchers. Further investigations revealed that they were killers.
A police source said: “The suspects confessed to being responsible for the killing of the three policemen and their driver. The suspects said they were on a random robbery operation on a super markets along, Ada-George and Woji areas of Port Harcourt, dispossessing customers of their valuables and mobile phones, when they accosted the driver carrying the policemen.
The suspects, who were also armed with Ak-47 rifles, opened fire on the policemen and the driver, killing them on the spot. We were following IG’s instructions, trailing kidnappers of Mrs. Belgaum, who was abducted and released after an unknown amount was paid as ransom, when we busted the car snatching and robbery gang. Professor Belgaum, a British Nigerian, is a medical doctor working at the University of Port-Harcourt Teaching Hospital, (UPTH). We learned that the people who kidnapped the Professor carried out the operation, using a black Toyota Sienna. When we contacted our informants within Port- Harcourt, they gave us identities of the suspects, Dumlebabari Mbane and Godswill Jackson.

We went after them and got them arrested. “The suspects, however, confessed during interrogations that they were not part of the gang who kidnapped Professor Belgaum. They admitted to have taken part in the killing of the three policemen and their driver at Woji area of the state. They led us to recover two Toyota Sienna vans which they snatched at Port Harcourt. We also recovered the two Ak-47 rifles, which they took from the policemen they killed.”