By Ifeanyi Okolie

A four-man-gang of armed robbers who specialized in breaking into private residences at the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, stunned detectives when they narrated their hair-raising exploits from prison yard to robbery scenes.

The suspects

In fact, the suspects who normally operated with sophisticated weapons gave a graphic account of how they monitor their targets and carry out their operations at night without hitches. At the end of the day, they celebrate by sharing their loot which always include; highly prized electronic gadgets, mobile phones, cash, laptops, jewelries and exotic cars.

The suspects unmasked
Crime Alert gathered that the suspects who were identified as Tochukwu Nwalaka, Gideon Egbabon,24, Miracle Amechi, 19, and Jamiu Abdulsalam, were arrested when the Inspector- General of Police, Ibrahim Idris received several complaints from residents of Gwagalada and Kuje areas of Abuja over their criminal activities.

Police sources disclosed that the IGP, after receiving complaints from some of their victims, directed his operatives at the Special Intelligence Response Team, IRT, to trail and apprehend the suspects. It was learned that the IRT, led by CSP Abba Kyari, trailed one of the mobile phones robbed by the suspects to Kaduna state where one of the suspects was arrested. The suspect subsequently led the police to where other members of the gang were also arrested.

Confessions galore
“When the suspects were interviewed, they confessed to the crime and narrated how they formed the gang and carried out several successful operations in and around Abuja. One of the suspects, Tochuchwu Nwalaka, 21, a native of Abia State, told Crime Alert: “We started robbing sometime in June last year. I and my gang members met in a field where we used to play football in Kuje area of Abuja and we became friends. I used to visit my friends in their houses.

“During one of such visits to the house of our member called Miracle, I discovered that one of his neighbours wasn’t at home. I asked him about the neighbours and he told me that they had travelled. At that time, we were broke and out of cash. We then thought about breaking into the house and stealing any valuable we could lay our hands on.

“We called one of our friends Gideon, to join us and the three of us jumped over the fence and entered the house through the window. We stole a television set, a fan and a DVD machine. Unfortunately when the owner of the house returned, she discovered one of her bags with my friend, Miracle and she reported to the police at Kuje station and they arrested him. After his arrest, he brought them to arrest me also.

“Our case was eventually charged to court. We were granted bail but the complainant failed to show up during trial and the case was struck out.
The items we stole from the woman’s house were sold on the streets but after our arrest, she recovered them.

Misplaced identity
‘’From March to April 2016, I was accused of stealing a phone and taken to court. I later ended up in prison where I spent one month. Later, the person who really carried out the robbery was arrested and brought to prison. I was then discharged. While in prison, I met Sanni who told me that he was arrested for stealing cars. Our next operation was in June 2016. Miracle, Gideon and I were taking a walk from Kuje and we sighted a beautiful house around quarters area. We discovered there was no one around the house and agreed to rob the place at night.

“By 2 am, we stormed the house and scaled the fence which was low and discovered that there was no one in the sitting room. We then pulled down one of the window burglaries and entered into the house. While we were busy searching for valuables, we opened one of the doors and saw a woman and four children. We woke them up and asked they to take us to where their father was, and when we saw the man, we asked all of them to lie on the ground and we started ransacking the house.

“At the end, we took two plasma television, three phones and one laptop. We demanded for the man’s highlander SUV and he gave us the key and we kept all the things we stole inside the vehicle and zoomed off. We took the vehicle to the same Sanni who I met in prison and gave him all the items we stole from the house. He gave me N270, 000 and we shared the money among ourselves. We also gave N30, 000 to Sanni because he told us that he is a middle man and we shared the three phones we got from the house.

Our third operationat Kuchiakun
“Our third operation took place at Kuchiakun in Kuje in July, 2016. We were taking a walk also and we saw a good looking house and a vehicle parked inside. By 6pm of that day, four of us, including one of my friends, Jamiu, who was in school in Kogi, surveyed the house and discovered that there was no security. We stayed around that area until 3 am and scaled through the back fence. We broke in through the sitting room window and entered into the house.

“As soon as we gained entry, we entered the first room and found a 17- year -old boy. We tied him and went into the next room and discovered it was locked. We then went to another room and found a girl. We took her to the room that was locked and made her knock on the door and it was opened. When the father saw us, he started shouting and we told him we were not here to hurt him, that all we needed was money. He told us that there was no money in his house; that he was a civil servant. The wife told us that she has some little money with her and she went into her bag and gave us N25, 000.

“We searched the house further and found three laptops and six phones. We then asked for their car keys and they gave them to us. We drove out with two of the cars, a Camry and a Nissan. We drove to Gwagwalada, where Gideon sold the plastma and some of the phones and the three laptops. We then drove to Kaduna and handed over the cars to Sanni, and he paid us N400,000.”