By Izunna Okafor, Awka
In furtherance of its fight against criminality and touting in Anambra State, the Operation Clean and Heathy Anambra (OCHA Brigade), which is an enforcement agency of the State Government, has arrested more hoodlums indulging in various kinds of crimes, including conniving with commercial drivers to rob stranded travellers in the State.
The Operations Officer of the Agency, Mr. Chukwuemeka Oye, stated this while parading the suspects at the Agency’s Headquarters in Awka, the State capital, on behalf of the Managing Director, Comrade Celestine Anere.
According to him, the suspects, numbering six, were individually arrested at different locations in Onitsha metropolis as they were terrorizing innocent individuals and dispossessing them of their hard-earned resources, while also diverting government’s revenues.
Mr. Oye noted that the suspects were arrested for different crimes, including armed robbery, theft, kidnapping, touting and impersonation.
He identified the suspects as Ndubuisi Okoye (from Ebonyi State) and Chiedu Agbo (from Enugu), whom, he said, were caught for robbery; and Emeleze Enya (from Rivers State) was caught snatching phones from unsuspecting residents at Building Materials International Market Ogidi. He further added that the remaining three suspects would be charged for touting and impersonation.
Mr. Oye called on the state citizenry to always approach the Agency with complaints and suggestions on the activities of touts and impersonators, while assuring of prompt response and action on any of such complains.
He went further to reveal that the suspects would be handed over to the police for further investigation, after which they will be charged to court for prosecution.
When interviewed, the robbery suspects, Okoye and Agbo confessed to the crime. They narrated how they connive with commercial drivers to rob stranded travellers at night, after which they would share the proceeds of the robbery.
They also pleaded for mercy, while claiming that it was the handiwork of the devil.
Also speaking, one of the victims their criminality (name withheld) narrated how they fed on him after their accomplice and commercial driver deliberately delayed his journey from Lagos to Anambra, on a claim that his vehicle developed fault.
According to the victim, when he and his co-passengers got to Asaba from Lagos, they were told that the vehicle had developed fault, and were transferred to Mr. Okoye’s vehicle who assured to take them to Onitsha, from where they would get buses to Awka and Enugu.
He however, said that, to his utmost surprise, when they got to Onitsha, the driver also handed them over to armed robbers and zoomed off immediately; while the armed robbers moved them to a location and dispossessed them of all their money, wares, and other resources running into millions of naira.
