An alleged gang leader of
a robbery and kidnapping gang, Sunday Igwe alias, School Boy, has disclosed why his gang killed an
American soldier, Chuks Okebata,
and dumped his corpse into a gutter.
Igwe (29), said that he and his men never had any
intention of killing Okebata, an American Army veteran. Igwe said that they
were forced to kill him.
Okebata was killed on 12th of January,
2017 at Okigwe area of Imo State. Igwe explained that when they abducted
Okebata, they didn’t know who he was, neither were they aware that he had a
pistol.
They threw him into the boot of their car and drove
off. A few minutes later, Okebata started shooting sporadically from the boot,
towards their direction.
The bullets got Igwe and another of his gang member.
Infuriated, the gang halted the car, opened the boot, disarmed Okebata, killed
and flung his body into a gutter.
Igwe recalled: “He pulled out his pistol and started
shooting at us from the boot. One of the bullets got me and our driver. I asked
the driver to stop the car. We disarmed and killed him at the spot. We threw
his body inside a gutter and left. I
want everyone to understand that we had no intention to kill him, but he forced
us. We didn’t know who he was before the incident.”
Igwe and other members of the gang, Michael Ahamefula
(28), Oyebuchi Echefule , Ndubusi Isaac,
Victor Dagogo, Chima Okoro and John Edet, were arrested by operatives of
the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT),
led by a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Abba Kyari.
Police alleged that Igwe and his members were
arrested at different locations within Imo, Abia and Rivers states. The police
also said that it recovered two AK-47 rifles and six magazines loaded with 127
live ammunitions. The gang was said to have carried out several high profile
robberies and kidnappings. The gang’s waterloo started after it killed the
American soldier.
The IGP, Mohammed Adamu, ordered Kyari and his men
to fish out the gang after he received series of petitions from concerned
citizens, who were perturbed by the activities of kidnappers and robbers in the
three mentioned states.
It was actually based on information provided by
victims of the alleged gang that IRT operatives in Abia State, started
investigation. The investigation led to Igwe, and soon the operatives started
trailing him. One day, he was trailed to a hotel in Aba Town and arrested.
A police source revealed: “The operatives were on
Igwe’s trail for six months. He was eventually arrested in January 2018. Police recovered two AK-47 rifles and six
magazine loaded with 127 live ammunition from him. The police went after his
gang members. His second in command, Michael Ahamefula, was arrested. He was
arrested along with Oyebuchi Echefule, in a hotel in Port Harcourt, Rivers
State. And then, Ndubusi Isaac, Victor Dagogo, Chima Okoro and John Edet were
arrested in Orlu and Aba areas of Abia and Imo states.”
The suspects were alleged to have confessed to being
members of the gang.
Igwe explained that the American soldier, Okebata,
was killed because he tried to kill them after he was kidnapped.
Igwe said: “We threw him into the boot of our
operational car after we abducted him. We didn’t know who he was. While we were
heading to our camp, where we would keep and negotiate for his ransom, he pulled
out his gun and started shooting at us from the boot of the car.”
Igwe, who is from Abia State, is a secondary school
dropout. He said: “After I dropped out of school in 2009, I
went to Iwofe area of Port Harcourt, where there is Eagles Cement. I learnt how
to drive a truck in 2010. I met some boys, Oshare and Op, at a smoking joint. They
introduced me into crime. We started by
snatching people’s car. My job was to drive the cars out of town, to Eleme area
of Port Harcourt, where they would be sold off. I earned N20,000 for each
operation. After a while, I went to my
village; I met one of my brothers known as Samuel. He was also into car
snatching. He allowed me to join his gang.
I was connected to the gang leader, KC. We started snatching cars in Aba
Town. Samuel was the owner of the guns
we were using to snatch the cars. There
was also Ejike, who is a member of our gang. Ejike’s job was to drive us in his
car to the location where we would snatch the cars. I made N60,000 on each
operation.
“While we were on this, I met Mazi; he introduced me
to kidnaping. He wanted a place where he would be keeping kidnapped victims. I
provided my family house in the village. I was equally looking after the
victims. One day, operatives of the Department of State Serviced (DSS) came
looking for Mazi. They shot and injured me, but I escaped. I was taken to the
hospital, where I spent eight months.”
When Igwe returned from hospital, he met KC, who had
then gone into kidnapping. KC had AK-47 rifles. Igwe teamed with him.
Igwe recounted: “Our first operation was in Imo State.
We had no specific target; what we used to do is to move round the city,
looking for people with flashy cars. When we see any, we follow and kidnap the
owner. One day, there was this man we
followed. We didn’t know he had policemen with him. The moment the policemen
came down, we opened fire. We killed them at the spot and collected their
rifles. We then kidnaped the man we found in the car. We didn’t know the man was
just a driver. He wasn’t the owner of the vehicle or the person the policemen
were protecting. On that day, we took two victims to our camp.
“After that that operation, we were all tired. We
slept off. Our victims, who we left unguarded, escaped and alerted the police.
By the time we woke up, we realised that the police were everywhere looking for
us. KC was unlucky; he was gunned down while trying to escape. The police
recovered one of his rifles. We stopped working for a long time and later we
resumed when we thought the police were no longer looking for us.
“We went into kidnapping again. On the night we
killed the American soldier, we had three rifles with us. We went out looking
for victims; we saw a man and tried to kidnap him, but the man noticed we were
after him. He ran away and we pursued. When we caught up with his car, we met
it empty. He left with the key. We continued with our journey and then we
spotted the American soldier in his Infinity SUV. We went after him. We
kidnapped him. We put him in the boot of our car without knowing that he had a
gun with him. But when we got to Ata Junction, on the Okigwe Road, the soldier
started shooting. His bullets hit me on my hand. He shot the driver on the leg,
then I came out and killed him. We dumped his body inside the gutter. After that operation, I lost all my guns
because some IRT operatives swooped on Mazi and Ejike. They took my guns from
him. I ran to Ghana. I returned to Nigeria in November 2017. Since I had no
gun, I went to Port Harcourt, where I met Solid. He had an Ak-47 rifle. We used
it to snatch a car, but Solid took the car and sold it. I then seized his gun.”
Ahamefuna, who is the second in command in the gang,
is married with two children.
He said: “I reside in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. I
am from Abia State. I’m a trader. I met
School-boy in a smoking joint. He had injury in his leg then. He took me to his
village, where we met KC. We formed a kidnapping gang; we kidnapped a man who
paid us N1.5million. We went and kidnapped another businessman, who paid us
N15million. We also picked someone in Owerri. We took the person to Iteam in
Abia State; we got N10million. And then
we had trouble after our last operation.”
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