Rivers State Police Command has arrested a 13-man gang whose area of specialty is to hijack trucks loaded with goods and diversify them from intended destinations to places where they would be sold to buyers.
To the shock of many however, the leader of the gang and some of its members were soldiers serving in the Nigerian Army.
Disclosing this on Friday, police authorities in the command said that the suspects were arrested following investigations when arrests were made over attempted burglary, leading to the uncovering of clandestine criminal activities.
Sunday Tribune gathered that on March 4, at about 11pm,the police command received a distress call from the ONELGA Security Peace and Advisory Committee (OSPAC) about burglars that had been arrested while attempting to vandalise warehouses at Elimgbu belonging to Mr. Emmanuel Nwangwu and Mrs. Ndifreke Ekanem.
Police operatives promptly went to the scene and found five suspects whom OSPAC had rescued after severe beating by an angry mob.
While the wounded suspects were taken to the police hospital, Investigation commenced immediately, which led to the discovery of one of the suspects, Isaac West (08NA/61/2653), as a corporal in the Nigerian Army serving in Delta State.
Another suspect, Jabila Kammangar a.k.a ‘Kaka,’ an officer of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) serving in Kabba, Kogi State.
They were said to have confessed to abandoning their duty post to perpetrate crime in Rivers State because they found it lucrative.
During confession, it was learnt that Corporal West, a 36-year-old father of four, is from Buguma in Rivers State. He joined the Nigerian Army in 2008 and was attached to 3 Battalion in Warri.
West left his base using a sick pass but did not return even after it expired, and had been so for over a month when he was arrested.
The soldier opened up to the police that he met with Kaka while serving in the anti-bunkering unit of the Army and they did several illegal deals together.
He also said he came to Port Harcourt in response to Kaka’s phone call about raiding the warehouses where they were caught.
Further investigations revealed they were part of a wider ring of suspected criminals who specialised in armed robbery, hijacking and diversion of goods.
Mode of operation
Corporal West disclosed how he and other Army personnel had been the key players in the syndicate. In addition to ransacking warehouses, he said that they had a network of informants who used to intimate them with the itinerary of goods-bearing trailers.
As soon as they received such information, they would dress up in full military gear, lie in wait for the trailers, and accost them with a white Hilux van as they approached their location.
They would then proceed to intimidate the drivers, beat them up and hand over their truck keys to designated drivers who would divert the trailers to waiting receivers.
Based on his confessional statement, Sunday Tribune further gathered that the police were able to track down and arrest Lance Corporal Abdul Musa (13NA/70/10545), Lance Corporal Mgbe Jeoffrey (16NA/75/6896), and Corporal Innocent Okwoli (12NA/68/6552), all personnel of the Nigerian Army.
Also arrested were eight civilian collaborators in the syndicate identified as Olisa Emeka, George Obilor, Sampson Wilson, Alfred Abeke, Barry John, Auwalu Aliyu, Uchenna Nwali and Alhaji Sofinu Haruna.
The key coordinator of the group’s activities, it was further learnt, was Okwoli, an indigene of Otukpo in Benue State and a soldier posted to Intelligence at Onne.
He confessed that he began leading hijacking operations after he was introduced to it by one Abbas and two officers of a sister security agency whose names he did not know. After achieving a successful operation, Okwoli said that he decided to build his own team.
Their numerous crimes included the hijack of a trailer load of fertilizer worth N25 million belonging to Alhaji Sadiq Adams on February 17, 2024, hijack and diversion of a 40-foot container containing imported clothings from China in February, and hijack and diversion of a trailer load of POP cement, also in February.
Their last operation before they were caught was an attempt to burgle warehouses belonging to Emmanuel Nwagwu and Ndifreke Ekanem.
The police recovered the hijacked POP cement goods. Also recovered was a white Toyota Hilux used in the gang’s operations, while the police were in the process of recovering the trailer load of fertilizer from the receiver.
As a result of the atrocities committed, Sunday Tribune learnt that three out of the affected soldiers had been dismissed from the Nigerian Army after being turned over to the authorities by the police.
In his comment, the Commissioner of Police, CP Olatunji Disu, stated that the arrests were an indication of the command’s determination to rid the state of the crime of hijacking and diversion of goods.
CP Disu commended the efforts of the police officers of the command and encouraged them not to rest on their oars.
He also expressed his commitment to the continuation of brokering healthy partnerships with sister security agencies in the fight against crime.
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