When beautiful Miss. Nkiru Igboatu met and fell in love with Mr. Obinna Amechi, 32, then left everything she held dear and moved down to Lagos, she never thought that the Romeo and Juliet love affair would land her in police net.Nkiru has sadly come to realise that it’s not all that glitters, that is gold.
When she first sighted the suave, rich looking Amechi, she had fallen for his smooth lines, believing he was truly a trader dealing in cotton materials.
She never knew he was into big time trans-border robbery. The scales soon fell off her eyes, when police smashed the gang, after it went to Benin Republic to attack a Bureau De Change.
The gang killed a Beninois policeman and a Nigerian man who attempted to truncate their escape by using his Jeep to block the exit route. They carted away over N10million from the operation, but ran into trouble, when their getaway vehicles developed fault. They abandoned the vehicles and scampered in different directions, with many making a bee-line to surrounding bushes.
Frightened villagers in the areas quickly alerted the Lagos State Police Command, since the bandits were already on Nigerian territory. Within a twinkle of an eye, the bushes were crawling with anti-robbery policemen.
The Nigerian Compass gathered that the policemen combed the bushes for good three days before they arrested a few among the seven-man-gang that went for the operation. They were later used as bait to catch others.
The 20-year-old nursing student of Toronto nursing school, Anambra State, said she decided to come down to Lagos and live with Amechi, because she discovered she was pregnant. The disillusioned girl said that love had been hard on her, because she landed in trouble.
Members of the gang presently in police custody are: Andrew Aihomogbe, 38; Kingsley Okafor, 37; Njoku Emmanuel, 32; Martins Agbor, 32; Chidibemu Uzigbe, 32; Edgar Peter, 37, and Amechi.
Aihomogbe, a father of twin girls, explained that the gang used four AK 47 rifles in the operation, which were supplied by a naval officer. The naval officer was supposed to collect N400, 000 from the operation. The naval officer is presently at large, but anti-robbery detectives are already on his trail.
Recovered from the robbers were four AK 47 rifles, 99 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition and N504, 430 cash, another sum of 1,673,000 CFA, suspected to have been stolen from the victims during the robbery.
While speaking on the arrest of the robbers, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Marvel Akpoyibo said: “The chain of events that led to the waterloo of the suspected robbers started on August 30, 2010, between 11a.m and 12p.m, when the deadly gang, armed with sophisticated weapons raided Bureau De Change operators and other businessmen in Krake Village, Seme Podge, in Republic of Benin. When we received the report of the operation, we ordered that all the routes leading from Benin Republic to Lagos State be monitored. We sealed off the area, to avoid a spill over of the robbery operation taking place across the border. We also ordered the deployment of a combined team of crack operatives from the Police Mobile Force (PMF), the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), and the Marine Police Unit to provide reinforcement and tactical back-up for police personnel from Seme and Badagry Divisions.”
According to the CP, when he received the report of the robbery, he ordered that all routes leading from Benin Republic to Lagos State be sealed off, to avoid a spill over of the robbery operations taking place across the border.
He said: “In an elaborate operation that typified the true spirit and essence of community policing, a combined team of police operatives, actively supported by villagers who supplied the much needed intelligence, gave the hoodlums a hot chase, after they had slipped into the Nigerian territory through one of the unclassified routes. The hoodlums escaped into the forest, very close to Yekeme River, after being forced to abandon their operational vehicle, a Toyota Sequoia Jeep, black in colour, marked Lagos, VC01-MUS. The entire perimeter of the forest believed to be harbouring the suspects was cordoned off and extensively combed by police personnel.
“The result of the massive and well coordinated operation was profound. Between August 30 and September 1, 2010, a total of eight suspects, including a female accomplice were arrested.”
Akpoyibo said that follow-up investigations conducted by Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, had led to the arrest of another member of the gang, identified as Arinze Oyiloha, 32. He was arrested at Oyingbo. He explained that Oyiloha had since confessed to being a member of the gang.
“He also admitted participating in several past armed robbery operations by the gang in different parts of the country, including Anambra, Kogi, Ogun and Oyo States.”
Nkiru said that she was arrested, when she drove to Badagry area to pick Amechi after he called her to come and pick him. She did not know that he was returning from a robbery operation that had gone awry. Few minutes after she picked him up with his partner, they were stopped by policemen on the highway.
She said: “I came to stay with him in Lagos because I was six months pregnant. I later lost the pregnancy. We’ve been living together now for like four months. I didn’t know that Obinna was a robber! He told me that he deals in cotton materials at Alaba. He had once taken me to his shop.”
Amechi told the Nigerian Compass that his lover, Nkiru, was actually a victim of circumstance. He explained that since he met and fell in love with the fair complexioned beauty, he had taken her on a merry dance, telling her one lie after another. He did this, so as not to lose her.
Knowing he was in a deep mess, Amechi candidly confessed his crimes.
He said: “We went to Benin Republic to rob. We were seven in number that day. It was the first time we would be robbing together. I had once taken part in a robbery in Kogi State. We were five that went on that operation. We attacked a market. We went there with three locally made pistols. When we got there, we waved the guns, ordered them to lie face down and collected their money. We went away with N6 million that day! We shared it N1.2 million each.”
Recollecting how the Kogi State robbery came to be, Amechi said that he was invited by his friend, Uchenna to join the gang. He and Uchenna became friends, while they were still in secondary school in Kano State. Before Uchenna’s invitation, Amechi had complained of being financially broke.
“When I told him that I was broke, he said he knew where we could get money. It was Uchenna that brought the three guns that we used in the operation. In fact, he was the one that initiated me into robbery. Before then, I used to act as conductor for trailers that travel interstates.”
After the operation, Amechi returned to Lagos, to continue with his double lifestyle, until he met another friend, called Chidibemu Uzigbe, a.k.a OZ, at Ladipo market, Mushin, Lagos.
OZ sold the idea of joining a gang to go to Benin Republic to attack a Bureau De Change, to Amechi and he bought it.
“OZ told me that there was a naval man, who would supply the guns for the operation. I can’t remember the name of the officer. On the day of the operation, we went in two cars: a Mercedes Benz and a white Golf, without a registration number.
It was actually a day after the operation that I was arrested. I was trying to call my baby. I was on the road, when some people started chasing me. OZ told me that anytime I see a white Golf car without registration number, I should know that the other members were there. I was already waiting when they arrived. We went away with N10 million.”
He further revealed that a Benin Republic policeman was shot by his a member of the gang because the man noticed the Golf had no number plate and started asking questions. They killed him.
Uzigbe also has his own story to tell. He claimed that it was one Arinze that came to invite him to join the gang and go for the Benin Republic operation.
“I never wanted to partake in any robbery again, especially not in Nigeria. I was unhappy with robbing in Nigeria. I didn’t want to continue to destroy my country. It was when Arinze told me that it was Benin Republic that we would be going to rob, that I accepted. Arinze told me that one Hausa brought the idea of robbing the Bureau De Change. We planned the robbery for a month.”
Uzigbe said he had partaken in robbery operations twice. One at the East; they were three that day; they went with double barrel guns.
“It was one Affion that led us on that robbery,” said Uzigbe.
With tears streaming down his cheeks, Aihomogbe wept like a baby. He said the tears were not for his plight, but for his two-year-old twins; little girls that he might never see again. He was the gang member that allegedly shot the victim, who attempted to block the robbers escape route with his jeep. But Aihomogbe insisted that he was not the only person that shot the man. He was also alleged to have been the person, who brought in the naval officer and got the four AK47 rifles from him, for the gang. It was also his bus and Mercedes Benz car that was used in the operation.
He confessed that his first robbery was carried out in Onitsha. In the operation, he got a share of N850, 000, and he used N800, 000 to buy a bus. He started using the bus for commercial purpose, plying Ikeja, Mile 2 and Ikotun route. It was on one of his routes that he met Suleiman Moshood, who told him about robbing a Bureau De Change.
“We took two months to plan the robbery operation,” said Aihomogbe. “We all fired at that man! It was not only me that shot him! The man tried to stop at Idiroko-Badagry. The man suddenly pulled off his shirt; he had charms tied all over his body. He was wielding a dagger and started chasing us. It was Martins that first opened fire; we started shooting. When he fell down, we used his car to escape.
“Whether I die today or not, the truth is that this is my second operation. The first operation gave me the bus. I have a wife and two little girls. My wife does not know that I’m into robbery. I used to lie to her that I was going to border for business. It was the Devil that pushed me into this!”
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