POLICE ARREST THREE LAGOS "BLOODY SUNDAY" SUSPECTS

Lagos State police yesterday said that they had made a breakthrough in their investigation of the September 9 “bloody Sunday” robbery that left three policemen and a commercial bus driver dead and several other civilians seriously injured, including a one year old boy. If you missed it, read it HERE.

Three suspected members of the gang behind the mid-Sunday robbery, which sent the city into panic were paraded at the Lagos Police Command, Ikeja.

They are: Uche Okeagbu (23), Emmanuel Ezeani (23) and Chinonso Nwuaugwu (23).

Also on parade before reporters were four vehicles, which hitherto served as their mobile armoury. The mobile armoury ( Infinity and Toyota Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and two volkswagen buses), had been re-constructed to conceal arms and ammunition from the prying eyes of security agents.

Found in the improvised chambers were: two rocket-propelled grenade launchers, five dynamites with a detonator, two general purpose machine guns, nine AK47 riffles, 225 AK47 magazines (fully loaded), 260 rounds of GPMG live ammunition, and over 10,000 rounds of live AK47 ammunition.

Okeagbu participated in the bloody Sunday robbery in which three policemen were killed. But Nwuaugwu, an active member of the gang, claimed he was “not in action” on that day. He had taken active participation in other operations carried out by the gang.

Ezeani, who was identified as a brother to one of the fleeing gang leaders, was arrested in the gang leader’s house.

He was accused by the police of being privy to all the meetings held by the gang.

According to the police, the gang had successfully carried out seven raids on banks in seven states.

Okeagbu, who participated in the September 9 attacks, said their target was usually 10 operations at a stretch, after which members of the gang will travel out of the country to allow the manhunt for them fade out.

He said: “On that Sunday, we had people we targeted for the operation. We came with information on those we robbed. Those that were shot were people that wanted to disturb our operations. But the policemen we killed were not chasing us. They were going on their own. We do not like seeing policemen when we are in action and that was why we killed them. “Whenever people see armed robbers, they should not try to stop them. The civilians that we fired were the ones that tried to stop us. We do not tolerate such when we are operating because our business is a matter of life and death thing.”

The suspect also confessed to taking part in a bank robbery in Kwara State. The operation was less than four days after the Lagos multiple attacks.

According to Okeagbu, the gang had taken over a police station, few meters away from the bank, before the laucnhed the attack.

He said: “Before that particular operation, we took over the police station that was close to the bank. We shot at the station and all the policemen on duty ran away.

“We then moved straight to the office of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), knocked on his door and he asked us to enter. As at that time he did not know what was going on. He offered us a seat and we now told him that our gang is operating outside and that he should cooperate and he said there was no problem. We were with him until our members outside signalled to us that the operation was over.”

Okeagbu informed that the gang has no female member, saying that the person being erroneously taken for a woman is actually a man.

“He is just big and have breast like a woman. He also behaves like a woman. He is a man”, he said.

Police Commissioner Alhaji Umar Manko, who paraded the suspects in the company of his Area Commanders, said that acting on a tip-off, the State Special Anti-robbery Squad ((SARS), led by its commander, Mr Abba Kyari, a Superintendent of Police (SP), stormed Ilemba-Hausa in Ajangbadi and arrested the suspects on September 23.

He noted that during interrogation, Okeagbu gave information, which led to the recovery of huge arms and ammunition concealed in two buses marked LSD467AR and AGL506XB.

The vehicles, the police chief said, were carefully parked in Okeagbu’s residence.

Manko said whenever the gang operated, they drove the buses (stuffed with groundnuts or cassava) to the location, parked them in front of their target of attack and after the operation, they drove away to beat security checks.

He said one of the gang’s operational vehicles also has a censor Close Circuit Television (CCTV) to monitor whoever was trailing them.

Manko said his men are on the trail of other members of the gang who, he said, have their hideouts across the country. (THE NATION)