Police recover, return N15m to Sokoto robbery victim

The Sokoto state Police command has
recovered and returned N15million which was
stolen from an unidentified
man by a 5-man
armed robbery gang at the Ilela border market
in Ilela LGA of Sokoto state on June 1st.
Parading the suspects with the money
recovered at the Sokoto state Police command
headquaters, DCP Douglas Agbonleni who
spoke on behalf of the Sokoto State
Commissioner of Police, Gambo Lawal, gave an
insight on how the robbers were able to
dislodge their victim of the money and how
they were subsequently caught. Continue...
"The robbery operation was successful as
they were able to dispossess their target
of over N15 million cash at the Ilela
border market, after firing into the air to
scare people. We received the information
at about 6pm on June 1 and instantly
went on stop-and-search operation and
our men at Rabbah local government
found a black colour Volkswagen Golf car
with registration number Jigawa AG 569
HJA along the forest route and
apprehended three of the criminals while
the other two escaped" he said.
The three robbers arrested were identified
as Joseph Ohakin, ThankGod Sunday,
Emmanuel Ugo (aka Ifeanyi). Apart from the
money, other items recovered from them were
weapons including locally made and foreign
assorted rifles neatly concealed in the seats of
the vehicle.
The Police said after they arrested the armed
robbers in the bush, the robbers offered to
give them the stolen N15million on the
condition that they let them go, but the police
men declined the offer. The police then
launched a search for the remaining two
robbers who escaped. A mobile phone which
they used in communicating was used to track
down the other two criminals.
"When the first three were arrested, we
searched the vehicle and recovered the
money, we discovered a GSM telephone
and upon diligent investigation, we traced
that phone to Kano and our detectives
proceeded to Kano where we were able
to trace the owner of that phone who was
a member of the robbery gang and had
escaped from Illela. We discovered that
the telephone belongs to one Habibu
Abdullahi (Alias 02). He is popularly called
02 in Kano. We picked him up and we
knew that they were about five members
in that gang. So after arresting and
interrogating Habibu Abdullahi, the fifth
member of the gang, Garba Ismail was
traced to a suburb of Kano and picked up
also. So all the five members of the gang
that came here to rob at the Illela town
have been picked up,” he said.
The owner of the N15m stolen who was
present at the press briefing confirmed he had
received his money.