Covid19: Police arrest five armed robbers in Akwa Ibom

By Eyo Akaiso, Uyo.

As the hardship occasioned by the sit at home order over Covid19 continues to bite harder in Akwa Ibom state, some criminal elements have taken to crimes such as armed robbery and snatching of phones and money from innocent citizens among others, to survive the hard time.

On Sunday five robbers were apprehended by the police at two different locations around the Godswill Akpabio International stadium.

Two of them, Eseobong and Oliver were caught by vigilante group in Nung Oyo, a community at the western axis of the stadium and handed over to the unit head, Chief Effiong Okon Akpan who in turn handed them over to the police.

Narrating what happened at his palace on that fateful Sunday when the two robbers were brought to his house, Chief Akpan said “I heard commotion at my frontage and when I came out I saw a young boy beaten to stupor by the mob who accompanied the vigilante group that brought him. And the first thing I did was to open my parlor door for him to enter to save his life.

On enquiry the boy gave his name as Alowa Ahmed from Edo state and said he has been robbed of his phone and money.

In less than ten minutes another two boys by names Blessing and Benjamin Olukwo from Rivers State were brought and I also opened my parlor for them to enter to save them from being lynched”.

According to him, “Alowa said as he alighted from kekenapep he decided to bring out money he just collected from ATM to confirm. All of a sudden he had a tap on the shoulder and before he could turn properly the person had collected the money from his hand.

And another person identified as Eseobong, one of the robbers dragged to collect his phone, in the process the phone fell by the roadside and when asked if he sees the person he can identify him he said yes”.

But Eseobong in his statement, said he was with Oliver when Blessing dragged him saying he was not the one who collected his money.

At this juncture, some people were despatched to bring Oliver and immediately Alowa saw him he identified him as the one who collected the money from him, but Oliver said he was not the one.

According to the Chief, it took ingenuity of the intergators to get Oliver to own up to the crime and the two of them were subsequently handed over to the police.

Infact, it was discovered that Ahmed was beaten due to false information supplied by Eseobong who was even one who wanted to snatch Ahmed’s phone.

In a similar development three robbers were arrested by the police on the same at Etoi village not too far from Nung Oyo, Obio offot. One of the three robbers was armed with a gun.

When contacted on phone, the police public relations officer, Akwa Ibom state police command, Mr. Numan Fredrick said he was yet to be on the incident. However, he requested for the location where the two incidents occurred to be sent to him for necessary action.

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