Bank robbery: Police arrest four suspects in Akwa Ibom
The Akwa Ibom State Police Command has arrested four suspected bank robbers in the state.
The suspects, identified as Benjamin Emeka, 28; Obe Awa, 29; Remembrance Obikwe, 35; and Aniefiok Sunday, 29, were said to have robbed a bank customer of N3.2m.
All the suspects confessed to the crime and recounted their mode of operation before they ran out of luck on the day they were apprehended by the police.
One of them, Sunday said, “My role is to go to a bank and watch out for people observe coming out with money; I then pass the information to our members outside to attack the person. We have robbed the bank on two occasions before I was detected on that day. We didn’t kill.”
Another suspect, Obikwe, revealed that the security officers attached to the bank identified the suspects during a fresh operation and arrested them.
He said that they were informants to a six-man armed robbery gang that specialised in trailing and robbing customers who withdrew large sums of money from the bank.
“On February 6, we got to Uyo and we went to the bank and one of the security officers saw my colleague, followed him and held him. When I came in, they also held me. I am an informant to Obe and Emeka. The CCTV noticed him (Sunday) during the last bank robbery,” Obikwe said.
Obe, a graduate of Business Administration and Management, Rivers State Polytechnic, claimed that he was driven into armed robbery because of joblessness and lack of money to take care of his pregnant wife.
He said, “We are robbers. Two of our members were arrested in Uyo and they brought the police to Port Harcourt to arrest me. We are six and the remaining two persons have escaped. We have robbed banks in Port Harcourt and Uyo.
“I handled one of the AK47 (guns) and our major aim is not to kill, but to collect the money. I am into armed robbery because I lost my job; my wife is pregnant, but she doesn’t know that I am a robber.”
Emeka confessed that he was lured into armed robbery by his friend, who was at large, adding that he was arrested in Umuahia while enjoying his loot.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Odiko Ogbeche, on Friday, said Sunday and Obike led the team of policemen to Port Harcourt and Umuahia, where Obe and Emeka were nabbed.
He noted that their kingpin, identified as Elder, ran away, but assured Nigerians that the police were on his trail and would soon pick him up to face the law.
Ogbeche warned criminals to stay away from the state as the police were determined to make the environment uncomfortable for them to operate.
