BY MIKE OSAROGIAGBON
Benin City, Nigeria – Ibrahim Adamu, 25 and a Navy officer, has confessed that he took to car snatching during his course in Sapele town in Delta State.
The navy officer and his alleged partner in crime, one Abdullahi Abdulwahab,26, a personnel of the Nigeria Correctional Service, serving in Kaduna State were paraded by Edo State Police Command over alleged car snatching and armed robbery in Edo state during the week.
Speaking with journalists at the Edo State Police Command headquarters in Benin City, Ibrahim Adamu said he was recruited into the Nigeria Navy in 2019, as his arrested came after he stole a Mercedes Benz C300 car in Delta State.
“I was recruited into Navy in 2019, I work in Lokoja, Kogi State before I was posted to Warri Delta State, it was when I went on course in Sapele that I got the mind to steal vehicle.
“When I finished my course, Abdullahi told me that he wanted to visit me, when he came, I told him that there is work I want us to do that will bring money for us and he agreed.
“We chattered a tricycle from Warri to Sapele for the operation. We saw a vehicle without number plate in Sapele, we asked him to stop but he refused. We pursued him to a village where he finally stopped. And I told him, we are taking him to our office for driving unregistered vehicle and he pleaded that we should settle the matter there but we refused.
“I took over the steering from him and started driving but when we got to Oghara road, he asked how much will he offered us to settle the matter and I said N500,000 but he pleaded and transferred N400,000 to one POS number in Abuja we gave him, the POS later sent the money back to us. We were driving to Abuja when police arrested us,” the navy officer confessed.
On his part, Abdullahi said Adamu invited him to Warri for the job as that was his first time of involving in a robbery operation.
The Public Relations officer, Edo State Police Command, SP Chidi Nwabuzo who paraded the suspects, said they were arrested in army uniform at Ekpoma by the crack team of the command following a tip off.
He said the suspects attacked the driver of an unregistered C300 Mercedes Benz car in Sapele, Delta State and snatched the car from him and also forced him to transfer N400,000 to their account.
SP Chidi Nwabuzor stated that the suspects were driving the vehicle to one Alhaji in Abuja for sale when they were intercepted by police in Ekpoma, Edo State.
“The suspects have made statements and claimed to be personnel of the Nigerian Navy and Correctional Service respectively”.
SP Nwabuzor said the vehicle and military uniform were recovered from the suspects as they would soon be arraigned accordingly.
