C’ River police arrest 19 ‘one chance’ thieves

The Cross River State Police Command has arrested 19 suspects who specialised in robbing people in commercial vehicles.

The act, popularly referred to as one chance, is a menace that has long faced residents of Calabar.

It was gathered that their modus operandi was posing as commercial motorists and robbing unsuspecting commuters, who entered the vehicles, of their money and other valuables.

The police said on Tuesday that four vehicles were also recovered from the suspects.

The suspects comprised 11 men and eight women. They were from Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, Abia, Anambra and Delta states.

The vehicles seized by the police were one Volkswagen Vento marked, FGG463ME (Anambra); one Volkswagen Golf, NKE965AA (Ebonyi); one Volkswagen Wagon, FGG451ME (Anambra); and one Mazda 626 BR151AGL (Lagos).

Parading the suspects at the State Police Quarters, Diamond Hill, Calabar, the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of criminal investigation, Mr. Ganiyu Salami, said they were arrested in two different hotels in Calabar following a tip-off.

He said, “We got them through sustained intelligence monitoring. We gathered that they had come into town and we were able to get them after their operation in two hotels in Calabar.”

Salami said bundles of papers, neatly cut to the size of naira notes, were recovered at the hotels.

He explained that the neatly cut papers were used most times to replace the money they stole, while the unsuspecting victims would believe they still had their money intact on them.

Salami said the suspects, who had confessed to the crime, divided themselves into four groups and operated in different parts of the town.

He said they lived outside Calabar, but only came in from time to time to carry out their operations, adding that they would be charged to court immediately.

The assistant police commissioner urged residents, especially those who had withdrawn huge sums of money from the bank, to be wary of the vehicles they enter.

He also warned residents against entering vehicles without number plates.

One of the suspects, Chidebere Onu, 32, from Enugu, claimed that he did not know anything about the robbery.

Onu said even though he lived in Enugu, he was always in Calabar to work as a cab driver.

One of the female suspects, Ifeoma Okoye, 22, also from Enugu, said she was working as a prostitute in the hotel when they were rounded up.