A suspected armed robber yesterday said the five of them paraded by the police in Abia State and the one at large were members of the gang that robbed and killed a couple in Umuahia last week in the presence of their three children.
Kingsley Emezue alias Pakins, identified as a member of an armed robbery gang terrorising Umuahia, Abia State capital, said he was a butcher but was lured into armed robbery by bad friends.
He also blamed frustration for his involvement in armed robbery, describing it as the handiwork of the devil.
“We did the robbery operation actually on Saturday night but I did not shoot the couple, it was the driver who shot them. “
Parading the suspects at the command headquarters, Umuahia, the Abia State commissioner of police, Ene Okon, linked the gang with the notorious armed robber, Sampson Iheukwumere Nwokocha, alias Grave, who was killed last December by the police.
He said the gang members relocated after the death of their leader but returned to Umuahia in January when they felt the city was safe again to operate in.
The CP said the six-man gang on January 25, operating with a tricycle, snatched a Toyota Sienna van along Health Centre Road in World Bank Housing Estate, Umuahia.
He explained that the gang used the Sienna van “in shooting to death a couple, Mr and Mrs Darlington Chinyere Uzoma after robbing them of the proceeds of the days sales, along secretariat road Ogwurube layout Umuahia.
“The gang also robbed one Uwaeme Chinedu of a bag containing his personal effects, and had before the present operation robbed and shot one Basil Okechukwu of Obowo, Imo State, on January 16, around Post Office Umuahia while on transit with the money he withdrew from one of the commercial banks.”
He said operatives of command intercepted a tricycle conveying two of the suspects named Precious Chukwuebuka Okoro and Ogbonna Ifeanyichukwu Justice.
Interrogation of the duo resulted in the subsequent arrest of the other members of the gang: namely Enyinna Asiegbu, 25; Promise Sunday Obilor aka Esere, 26 and Emezue Kingsley aka Pakins, 20, while the 6th gang member is still at large, he added.
