Arrested
with the suspect are five other members of the gang that allegedly
coordinated the high profile Sunday September 9 robbery in Lagos State
during which several persons including three policemen were killed.
The
gang members were also suspected to be the brains behind the deadly
robbery operation at the First Bank in Kwara State on September 11,
2012, where they overran a police station, killing several policemen
and carting away their rifles.
Parading
the suspects before journalists at the state police command
headquarters, Ikeja, yesterday, the Commissioner of police, Lagos State,
Umar Manko, told reporters that a total of 14 Ak-47 rifles, one General
Purpose Machine Gun, GPMG, 125 magazines, loaded with 6,672 rounds of
7.62mm ammunition, four GPMG chain bullets with 100 rounds of live
ammunition fully loaded, and 180 rounds of 9 mm live ammunition were
recovered from the suspects.
Cp
Manko, who gave the identities of the other suspects as Nonso Ndubisi,
26, Akindele Akinyemi,30, Emmanuel Ehianeta,27, Segun Runsewe,39,
and Isiaka Lawal,55, added that their arrest came following the deadly
robbery attack in Lagos State and Kwara on September 9 and 11, 2012
where several lives of innocent citizens and police rifles were lost.
According
to him; “the close circuit television (CCTV) footage of the first
bank, Share, obtained from Kwara state command was carefully analyzed
and one Akindele Akinyemi, who has been on Police list as the most
wanted armed robbery kingpin in recent time, was identified.
He
was lured by the officer in charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad,
SARS, SP Abba Kyari and his men from where he was hibernating in
Cotonou, the Republic of Benin and he was arrested with three other
members of his gang; Ehianeta, Runsewe and Lawal. The above mentioned
exhibits were recovered from them after the arrest.”
Continuing,
the Police boss stated that this group merged with Uche Okeagbu’s group
who were earlier arrested in September 2012, to carry out the September
9 and 11 robberies in Lagos and Kwara States. “They were formally
members of a notorious armed robbery gang which included Fatia Sule,
Tude Oyebade, Adewale Adeniyi, Bode Oyekan, Ismaila Showemimo, Ayomide
Jeremiah and many others who have earlier met their waterloo in a gun
battle with SARS operatives.
A
total of 11 Ak47 rifles, two pump action guns, two pistols, 59
magazines, 1,770 live 7.62mm ammunition, six .9mm and one live cartridge
were recovered through diligent follow up between November 2011 and
July 2012. The suspects confessed to series of bank, bullion van, and
Bureau De Change robberies in Lagos, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo, Okgi, and Edo
States.”
Police
sources intimated Crime Alert that based on the confessional statements
made by Akinyemi and Ehianeta after the large catch of arms and
ammunition were recovered from them, the name and contact address of
their arms supplier, who they identified as Tochukwu Nweke was obtained.
Ehianeta
reportedly claimed ownership of all the arms and ammunition and also
confessed that he bought them with over N20 million from Nweke. He also
revealed during interrogation that Nweke was getting his stock from
the looted amoury of former Libyan leader, Muamar Gadaffi stating that
Nweke has a contact in Niamey, the capital of Niger Republic who
received a large catch of arms and ammunition looted from Libya.
The
AK-47 rifles, he claimed were bought for as much as N450,000 while the
GPMG was sold to him for N1million adding that Nweke had many other
patronizers from different parts of Africa including Nigeria where they
make the biggest and fastest sales. The suspects also disclosed that
Nweke supplies dangerous weapons to the whole of South South and South
Eastern parts of the country.
Based
on these startling revelations, Crime Alert learnt that operatives of
the special anti-robbery squad launched a massive manhunt for the man
described as ‘the most notorious illegal arms dealer’ in the country.
The Officer in charge swiftly mobilized a team of crack operatives in
the squad to track down the notorious arm dealer.
The
first thing the operatives did was to establish contacts with some of
his boys in Lagos State. “At that time, we discovered that his phone
lines were not connecting as he was out of the country. One of our
operative who posed as a prospective buyer that needed two Ak-47 rifles
started communicating with his boys and he asked us to pay N600, 000
for each of the rifles amounting to N1.2.
We
agreed to his prices and offered to pay N900, 000, as first
installment. And we asked him how we could get the money across to him
and get rifles. He asked us to be patient and wait for instructions.
While he thought we were waiting, we ran a track on Nweke and it was
discovered that he was back in the country and his location was
Onitsha. We quickly moved down to Onitsha and started hunting for him.
Eventually
our efforts paid off on November 6, 2012, around 10 pm, Nweke was
tracked to Sea Park Hotel, Asaba, in Delta State and the next day, the
operatives invaded the hotel and arrested him. They searched his
Mercedes Benz 230 and found two Ak-47 rifles, 750 live ammunition and 14
magazines concealed in specially constructed compartment under the back
seat of the car.
“When
Nweke was interrogated, he confessed that he imports Ak-47 rifles,
GPMGS, Rocket launchers, and other military grade arms and ammunitions
into the country from Niger Republic. He gave the name of his
supplier as one Alhaji who resides at the border between Benin Republic
and Niger Republic stating that each time he makes an order, Alhaji
will package the arms and ammunition inside bags of onion and they will
send them through waybill from Benin Republic into the country.
He
also gave us the names of some of his buyers and led us to one Nonso
Ndubisi, in Onitsha whom he had supplied four Ak-47 rifles.”
When
Crime Alert interviewed some of the suspects, Akinyemi and Ehianeta
admitted taking part in some deadly bank and bullion van robberies in
various states. Ehianeta also told Crime Alert that he owns all the
arms and ammunition recovered from them.
According
to him “ I am from Edo state and I do not have a fixed address in the
country, I spend most of my time in Ghana and Benin Republic. I was
formally into internet fraud but I quit and joined armed robbery
because it is faster and easy.
I
invested over N20 million into armed robbery and I bought all my arms
and ammunition from Tochukwu. He sold Ak-47 rifles to me for
N450,000, magazines for N10,000, 7.62mm ammunition for N1,000 per one ,
GPMG for N1m and it .9mm ammunition, N1500 per one. He told me he
could sell rocket launchers for N1.5m and the rocket for N500,000.
I
decided to buy these ammunition because whoever owns the arms and
ammunition used during any operation gets the highest share. I never
knew I was going be arrested this way. I have had several successful
trips but on the day I was arrested, I was with Akin and we got a call
from a client who said he has a job for us.
The
client said he wanted us to rob somebody of the sum of N10 million.
So, I and Akin traveled to Lagos from Coutonu and asked the client to
meet us at Ojota, but unknown to us, we were in a police sting
operation. We didn’t know that the client was a police officer that
wanted to lure us for arrest.
When
we got to Ojota and we met with the client, before we knew what was
happening, we have been surrounded by SARS operatives and they
arrested us. I cooperated with them because I know the end has come. I
took them to the place where I keep my rifles at the home of my
herbalist in Ogun State and they recovered every thing. I have given
them all the information I have and I hope I will get a second chance.”
Vanguard Nigeria
No comments:
Post a Comment