A suspected robber, Kingsley Emezue
alias Pakins, alleged to be terrorising residents of Umuahia in Abia State, confessed that he and his gang members robbed and killed a couple in
the presence of their three children.
Emezue, who introduced himself as a
butcher, claimed that he was lured into armed robbery by bad friends. He further
blamed frustration for his involvement in robbery. He said: "We did the
robbery operation actually on Saturday night, but I did not shoot the couple. It
was our driver that shot them.”
The Abia State Commissioner of Police, Mr
Ene Okon, who paraded the Emezue and his partners in crime, alleged that the
gang had connection with Sampson Iheukwumere Nwokocha, alias Grave, a notorious
robber killed in December by the police.
Okon explained that the gang members
relocated after the death of Nwokocha, but returned to Umuahia in January after
the dust raised in the killing of their leader had settled.
Okon added: "The gang seemed to have gone on holidays
to enjoy their loots and resurfaced around January 10, 2020, in what seems like
recouping of expenses made during the Yuletides. The six-man gang on January
25, 2020, operating in a tricycle, snatched a Toyota Sienna van with
registration number RBC477RL, along Health Center Road in World Bank Housing
Estate, Umuahia. The gang, while operating in a Sienna van, shot and killed a
couple, Mr and Mrs Darlington Chinyere Uzoma, along Secretariat Road, Ogwurube
Layout, Umuahia. This was after robbing them of proceeds of the day’s sales.”
The gang also robbed Uwaeme Chinedu of a
bag containing his personal effects, and had before the present operation,
"robbed and shot Basil Okechukwu of Obowo, Imo State, on January 16,
around Post Office Umuahia Road. Okechukwu was killed while on transit with the
money he withdrew from bank.”
Okon said the worrisome situation
challenged operatives from, "Central Police Station, Umuahia and operatives
of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) on ‘Operation Puff Adder.’ The
operatives went after the hoodlums and intercepted a tricycle conveying two of
the hoodlums named Precious Chukwuebuka Okoro and Ogbonna Ifeanyichukwu
Justice. Interrogation of the duo resulted in the subsequent arrest of the
other members of the gang namely; Enyinna Asiegbu (25), Promise Sunday Obilor
(26) aka Esere and Emezue Kingsley (20) aka Pakins.”
The CP further explained that Obilor was
the gang leader and was in fact, the second-in-command in the gang before Nwokocha
was killed.
Okon said that the AK47 rifle recovered
from the gang was the same rifle, which Nwokocha had been using before his
death. The CP also disclosed that one of the suspects, Asiegbu, had a criminal
record and had just been just recently released from the Okigwe, Imo State,
Correctional Center.
The police recovered two Pump Action Rifles,
two locally made short gun, three live cartridges and one expended cartridge
from the gang. The police also recovered the gang’s operational Sienna van, but
the driver, who was the sixth gang member, is still at large.
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