ONE Chukwuma Okoro, yesterday in Akure, the Ondo State capital, confessed that the payment of his wife’s N300,000 bride price pushed him into robbery. Okoro made the confession when he was paraded alongside three other robbery suspects by the state Police Command. Speaking with newsmen, Okoro said he went into robbery to garner enough money to enable him pay N300,000 for his wife’s bride price as requested by his in-laws. Suspect Chukwuma Okoro was arrested after he attacked a salesgirl, Chinenye, who was going to the bank at Oyemekun Road in Akure, to deposit the sales for the day put at N550,000. He was said to have traced the salesgirl from her master’s beer distribution company on Okada before attacking her. Vanguard gathered that the suspect, while struggling with the salesgirl for the money, was pushed off the Okada and fell, after which he shot at the victim twice before he was overpowered and arrested by sympathisers. Confession Okoro told newsmen that he sells vegetable in Akure and that his efforts to satisfy his wife pushed him to robbery. He said he wanted to pay his wife’s bride price, but he did not have the N300,000 demanded by her family. His words: “It is my wife that pushed me into it. I have never stolen in my life. She ran away from my house since three weeks ago and has been begging to come back. “So I started looking for money to pay her bride price before she comes back. There is no way I can get N300,000; that is why I tried to rob.” Police Briefing newsmen, the state Police Command image-maker, Femi Joseph, said a pistol and five live carriages were found on Okoro. Joseph said: “Okoro attacked a salesgirl, who was going to the bank to deposit N500,000. As he was struggling to collect the money from her, the girl raised the alarm that attracted the passers-by who arrested him.” The police spokesman said the suspect will soon be charged to court just as he assured that the Command will not relent in the fight against crimes and criminality in the state. Another suspect Ezenwa Raphael, who purchased a Range Rover Jeep worth N6 million from robbers for N800,000 and subsequently sold same for N1.5 million, was paraded. Six robbers, who reportedly dressed in Police uniform to rob a businessman, Napoleon Isaac, on his way from Lagos, were also paraded. Two of the robbers were arrested in lbadan and two vehicles estimated at N11 million recovered. On the recovered vehicles, the Police spokesperson said the victim and the other person driving the unregistered vehicles were tied to a tree after the two vehicles were snatched from them at gunpoint along Akure-llesha Expressway at about 8.30p.m. on August 19. Joseph said on receipt of the complaint, detectives swung into action and with the aid of intelligence gathering, two suspects, Ezenwa Raphael and Chukwudi Oruma, were arrested in Ogun and Lagos states respectively. He pointed out that efforts are on to arrest other fleeing members of the gang adding that Ezenwa would soon be charged to court. Narrating how he got the vehicle, Ezenwa, who sells vehicle parts at Ladipo Market in Lagos, confirmed to have bought the vehicle from a mechanic for a sum of N800, 000. He said the sold the vehicle to another person for a sum of N1.5million. “My mechanic came to me that they have a vehicle to sell and they told me it is a Range Rover Jeep. I initially insisted that the Jeep is too much for me but they convinced to buy it. Ezenwa said “I bought it from them for a sum of N800, 000 and when I approached a friend I sold it to him again for N1.5million and that was how I was arrested.”
Vanguard news
