| Schoolboy arrested
for robbery
By GODDY OSUJI, Enugu
Monday, August 2, 2004
Police in Enugu have arrested 11 armed robbery suspects
and seized a large consignment of arms and ammunition. Among
the six armed robbers paraded before journalists were four
teenage boys caught at different locations.
One of them who claimed to be a JSS II student of GTC Enugu
reportedly took part in several armed robbery operations within
the Enugu metropolis.
Initially, Anthony Okonkwo ,16, denied ever shooting with
the gun found on him, telling Daily Sun that it was concealed
in a cloth and handed to him by one of his cohorts for safe
keeping. He later admitted that the operation in which he
was apprehended was his first attempt and was unlucky to have
been caught in the act.
His “brother in crime” Stanley Onyebuchi Eze,
17, a motor mechanic apprentice reportedly got involved when
a friend walked up to him in company of Anthony on a motorbike
complaining that his relation’s vehicle broke down somewhere
and needed his services to fix it back.
He obliged his request and off they went to get the vehicle
fixed. It was when they got there, according to him, that
the duo brought their guns and attacked the stranded people.
However, luck ran out on them when the police came on the
scene.
His account was, however, contradicted by Anthony, who with
the intent of telling the truth admitted that he was with
Stanley when the motorcyclist came to tell them that his motorbike
had developed fault and needed their help to carry out an
operation to raise some money. Anthony claimed to be hesitant,
only to be cajoled into joining in the operation when he was
assured that it was not going to be a difficult assignment.
Stanley’s assignment, he narrated was to point the gun
at the stranded passengers barking out a command for them
to lie face down. And it was Anthony that searched them and
could only collect N2,500 and other personal effects. In an
attempt to escape from the scene, a vehicle knocked them down.
The motorcyclist escaped and the duo was arrested.
The case of the other two, a driver Ogbonna Nwaike and conductor
Samuel Okeanu, according to them, was one of being victims
of armed robbery gang that swooped on them.
Parading the suspects at the Police Headquarters, Enugu, the
state Police Commissioner Mr Morrison Abe said their operation
was a call to duty as a result of sudden robbery upsurge in
the state. “We felt concerned and took it up as a challenge”.
Describing their action as an affront, the police boss said
they embarked on a very massive operation, applying the strategy
of raiding, stop and search that yielded the arrest of the
armed robbers. They killed several others and recovered several
arms and ammunition. Among them were police rifles believed
to had been snatched from policemen, SMGS, service pistols
used by police and the army and large quantity of locally
made guns.
Explaining that what were displayed was just a tip of the
iceberg, Abe added, “we still need more efforts to recover
more arms. The more we recover the better so that the hoodlums
can be taken out of circulation and the public enjoy more
of peace of mind and be able to sleep with two eyes closed.”
The police commissioner further explained that many of the
hoodlums were gunned down in shoot-out with the policeand
their bodies deposited at various mortuaries.
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