Police Recovers N15m Cash From Armed Robbers In Sokoto

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.