The Abia police boss stated that the suspects, during interrogation, confessed that they placed the bullion van on surveillance for two months.
By Jeffrey Agbo
Abia State Police Command has paraded 10 suspects including a former operative of the Department of State Services (DSS) for allegedly robbing a bullion van in the state.
The former DSS operative Prosper Israel is an indigene of Abia State, Commissioner of Police in the state, Janet Agebe, told a press conference on Monday in Umuahia.
Israel is believed to be part of a 14-man robbery gang that ambushed a bullion van near Ntigha Junction of the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway, on July 26, 2022.
The police commissioner stated that during the robbery, the cash officer of a new generation bank was killed on the spot, while the suspects carted an unspecified amount of cash being conveyed by the bullion van.
According to her, the arrest was the reward for months of painstaking efforts and investigation by police operatives.
“We carefully studied their modus operandi and set up a special intelligence technologically-led Investigative Squad, ITLIS, with a clear directive to arrest and recover weapons used by the deadly armed robbery gang,” the CP said.
“Consequently, the Investigation used systematically commenced operation, applying speed and accuracy, and on different locations and days, arrested the following callous armed robbery gang.”
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The other suspects paraded were Adesoji Adeniyi from Ondo State; Nnamdi Nwaosu a.k.a “Prophet”; Chinwendu Israel from Abia; Nwachukwu Albert a.k.a White (first armourer) from Delta State but resident in Lagos; Felix Ajaja from Ondo State; Moshood Opeyemi, from Osun State; and Matthew Christmas also from Delta.
Others were Azubuike Amaefula a.k.a Zubby from Abia, and Monday Samuel (second armourer) from Delta but resident in Ondo State.
Exhibits recovered from the suspects included one General Purpose Machine Gun ( GPMG); 13 AK 47 riffles; one cut-to-size double barrel gun with five live cartridges; 84 AK 47 magazines.
Others were two improvised explosives dynamites; a Mercedes Benz mini truck used in concealing firearms; and cash of N10, 184,000.
The Abia police boss stated that the suspects during interrogation confessed that they placed the bullion van on surveillance for two months.
She added that efforts were on to trail three other members of the gang still at large, pleading with members of the public to always volunteer information about suspected criminals around them.
The suspects, the CP noted, would be arraigned in court after further investigations.