Posted by By Kenny Ashaka, Kaduna on
Four suspected robbers, including a final year Political Science student of the University of Maiduguri who attacked and robbed the Kaduna South Local Government Education Authority and carted away a whopping N12 million meant for teachers salaries in November last year have been held by a crack team of anti-robbery policemen in Kaduna.
Four suspected robbers, including a final year Political Science student of the University of Maiduguri who attacked and robbed the Kaduna South Local Government Education Authority and carted away a whopping N12 million meant for teachers salaries in November last year have been held by a crack team of anti-robbery policemen in Kaduna.
The suspects, who have confessed to the robbery, also disclosed that they were responsible for the two robberies at Kada Payless - a Kaduna State Government-owned company that subsidises prices of foodstuff, meat and other commodities - in which about N1.6 million was carted away.
The suspects are Divine Egbukam, 27, (a.k.a. One hand), a mechanic who specializes in the repairs of carburator systems from Awomama, Orlu area of Imo State; ThankGod Obi, 31,(a.k.a. Prince), a final year student of Political Science of the University of Maiduguri who hails from Ogboji in Anambra State, Amos Bude, Moshood Sanusi (a.k.a. authentic) from Ariyibi in Kwara State and Charles Iwuchukwu.
The Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Edgar Tamuno Nanakumo told Daily Sun that two of the suspects had arrived from Jos and were planning to attack and rob a bank in Kaduna when a crack team of anti - robbery policemen swooped on them in a hotel following a tip-off.
Nanakumo said the confessions of two members of the gang who were arrested for another robbery led to the arrest of Divine Egbukam and ThankGod Obi who were already in a hotel in Kaduna for the bank robbery.
He listed items recovered from them as two AK47 rifles, 28 Ak47 rifle magazines with 30 rounds of ammunition each; two extra empty AK47 magazines; 99 extra 7.62mm ammunition; three locally made pistols; 17 cartridges and nine rounds of revolver pistol ammunitions.
Others are one Mercedes C - class car, one Mercedes V-Boot car, one BMW 3 - series car; one Mercedes - 200 car and one Mercedes - 190 car.
Leader of the six - man gang of robbers, Divine Egbukam told Daily Sun that he was introduced into robbery by a friend who is now at large and that before going into hiding, he introduced him to an arms dealer in Aba from where the arms and ammunitions were purchased.
'What happened was that we bought the weapons from a dealer in Aba for between N900,000 and N1.2 million. We paid half of the money and he gave us the weapons. We gave him the balance after the Kaduna South Local Government robbery, 'he revealed.
Egbukam said: 'Somebody called us and gave us the information. We came here for the job (robbery); two of us from Jos. We were armed because we used AK47 rifles, fully loaded and we went inside and brought out the money.
'We took around N10.5 million and went to the house of 'Authentic" (Moshood Sanusi) and arranged ourselves (shared the money among themselves). I got N3.5 million. Gambo, he is dead now, took N2.6 million. The man, who gave us the information, took about N850,000. 'Authentic" took N200,000 and ThankGod got N3.5 million."
The second suspect, and student of the University of Maiduguri, ThankGod Obi, confirmed the distribution of the 'loot" and said he took to robbery because he ran into some financial problems that saw him out of school for a semester.
'I ran into problem because they duped me of N1.3 million. They brought the business of fake supply. I gave the money but the supply wasn't real. I told Divine my problem and he promised to help me," he said.
While Divine said he bought a Mercedes C-class car and some household property with his loot, ThankGod said:'I paid some people I borrowed money from that time the man duped me."
Nanakumo warned armed robbers and those he called undesirable elements to stay clear of the state as it is no longer a safe haven for them.
'Let me warn that they should not test our will. Any undesirable element who think Kaduna State can be made a base would be attempting the impossible. We are more than ready to take them on," he said.
The CP appealed to residents of the state to volunteer information that would lead to the arrest of any criminal in their midst and assured that such information would be kept in strict confidence.