The Abia State police command has arrested 20 criminal suspects, including five boys, who allegedly robbed and shot a man and his wife to death in Umuahia last Saturday. The suspects, who were identified as Precious Okoro, Justice Ogbonna, Enyinna Asiegbu, Promise Obilor (a.k.a “Esere”) and Kingsley Emezuo (a.k.a Pakins), reportedly attacked the couple when they were returning home with their children after the day’s business.
Commissioner of Police, Ene Okon, who paraded the suspects before newsmen at the command’s headquarters on Bende Road, Umuahia yesterday, said they were arrested by a team of operatives from Umuahia Central Police Station and members of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Operation Puff Ader.
Okon said the couple, Mr. Darlington Uzoma and his wife, Chinyere, who were egg sellers, were killed on Secretariat Road, Umuahia at about 7:00p.m.
According to him, the two suspects, Okoro and Ogbonna, were arrested in a tricycle after the operation. “Interrogation of the duo resulted in the arrest of the remaining members of the gang. The suspects have confessed to a series of armed robbery and car snatching operations perpetrated by the gang,” he said.
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The police boss said the suspects were members of a notorious gang, led by one Sampson Nwokocha, popularly called “Grave”, who was killed in Umuahia on December 10 by SARS operatives. He said after killing the couple, the bandits robbed one Uwaeme Chinedu, before driving toward Bende Road in a Sienna snatched from its owner.
The gang also attacked some people, including a Deputy Commissioner of Police and Superintendent of Police, said to be returning from a re-run election duty in Arochukwu Local Government Area (LGA).
Okon expressed joy that the command recovered the weapons, including pump action, used by ‘Grave.’
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