Except those who
witnessed the press briefing, believing that the Nigeria police would return
such an amount of money, N15 million without attempting foul play is a near
impossibility. Of course believing that the police were telling the whole world
the truth without seeing the money would not have been possible.
But the presence
of the owner of the money who confirmed that he had received his money, further
buttressed the fact that despite the negative public image the police has
earned, there are still a few good eggs in the force.
Addressing the
press on efforts by his command to ensure a crime free state, DCP Douglas
Agbonleni who spoke on behalf of the Sokoto State Commissioner of Police, Gambo
Lawal, said they had achieved great successes because of the cooperation of the
people.
This by
implication, simply means, community policing as well as mutual cooperation
between security operatives and civilians is an inevitable apparatus of
achieving a crime free society, according to an activist, Ibrahim Adamu Tudun
Doki.
The police commissioner
on that fateful day paraded four sets of suspected criminals with very
sophisticated crime patterns. According to him, one set of the armed robbers,
who were originally six in number but three are still at large, were said to
have been invited from Kano by their gang members in Sokoto for the crime.
“The operation was
successful as they were able to dispossess their target of over N15 million
cash at the Ilela border market, after firing into the air to scare people. We
received the information at about 1900 hours on June 1 and instantly went on
stop-and-search operation and our men at Rabbah local government found a black
colour Volkswagen Golf car with registration number Jigawa AG 569 HJA along the
forest route and apprehended three of the criminals while the other three
escaped.
He said Joseph
Ohakin, ThankGod Sunday, Emmanuel Ugo (aka Ifeanyi) were arrested and money and
weapons including locally made and foreign assorted rifles neatly concealed in
the seats of the vehicle were discovered.
“We are assuring
you that we will soon apprehend the three other suspects that are at large as
those we have arrested are helping out in our investigation,” Lawal said.
It was gathered
that, the three suspects offered to forfeit the N15 million to the policemen
that arrested them so that they could go scot free but the policemen desirous
of upholding their integrity turned down the offer.
True to the
commissioner’s assurance, the men of the police command went into action and
apprehended two out of the three suspects that escaped earlier. The arrest
which was neatly executed in less than two months has restored public
confidence in the command, according to locals.
Explaining how
they were able to achieve the feat, the commissioner while thanking the people
of Sokoto State for their cooperation, said the partnership between them had
been yielding results and will continue to yield more results hence the arrest
of seven criminals in Sokoto just within weeks. According to him, the armed robbers
were arrested at different locations with the assistance of information from
the people of the state.
“The people gave
the police information about a robbery that was to take place in Wurnu local
government area and our people promptly responded and apprehended the suspects
in the act. The suspects include, Mohamed Moruf, Shehu Bala Umar and Maidame
Ibrahim who acted as spy for the gang.
“Another gang went
to attack somebody in Tangaza local government and our men responded promptly
following information from members of the public and one of the gang members
was apprehended with an AK 47 and a 33 round of live ammunition. The recent
breakthrough was as a result of the brevity with which our men traced the
remaining gang members of the recent N15 million robbery in Illela local
government through their mobile phone and got them arrested in Kano.
“When the first
three were arrested, we searched the vehicle and recovered the money, we
discovered a GSM telephone and upon diligent investigation, we traced that
phone to Kano and our detectives proceeded to Kano where we were able to trace
the owner of that phone who was a member of the robbery gang and had escaped
from Illela.
“We discovered
that the telephone belongs to one Habibu Abdullahi (Alias 02). He is popularly
called 02 in Kano. We picked him up and we knew that they were about five
members in that gang. So after arresting and interrogating Habibu Abdullahi,
the fifth member of the gang, Garba Ismail was traced to a suburb of Kano and
picked up also. So all the five members of the gang that came here to rob at
the Illela town have been picked up,” he narrated.
He said the police
was sending clear signals to robbers that Sokoto is out of bound for criminals
and further appealed to members of the public to continue to cooperate with the
police.
“We assure you
that any information given to us will be treated with utmost confidentiality
and that you will see results as we have just displayed here,” the commissioner
emphasised.
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