The Edo State Police Command has arrested a Navy officer, Ibrahim Adamu, 25, and an officer of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Abdullahi Abdulwahab 26, over alleged armed robbery and car snatching in Sapele, Delta State.
Spokesperson of the command, SP Chidi Nwabuzor, who paraded the suspects on Tuesday, May 9, 2023, said they were arrested in Ekpoma by a crack team of the command based on credible information.
According to the PPRO, the suspects attacked the driver of an unregistered Mercedes Benz C300 car in Sapele, snatched the car from him and forced him to transfer N400,000 to their account.
He said the suspects were arrested on their way to Abuja to sell the car.
“The suspects have made statements and claimed to be personnel of the Nigerian Navy and Correctional Service (formerly Prisons)respectively.”
Nwabuzor said the vehicle and military uniform were recovered from the suspects.
Speaking with journalists, Ibrahim Adamu, who was recruited into the Nigeria Navy in 2019, said he was arrested for stealing a Mercedes Benz C300 car in Delta state.
“I was recruited into the Navy in 2019. I worked in Lokoja, Kogi state before I was posted to Warri, Delta state. It was when I went on a course in Sapele that I made the plan to steal a vehicle,” he said.
“After my course, Abdulwahab came to visit me and I told him my plans, assuring him that we would make money and he agreed to join me. We chartered a tricycle from Warri to Sapele for the operation.
“We saw a vehicle without a 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 an 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 offered us money to settle the matter and I told him to pay N500,000 but he paid N400,000 to a Point of Sale account which I gave him and the money was later transferred to me. We were driving to Abuja to sell the car when the police arrested us.”
Abdulwahab, a correctional service officer in Kaduna State, said Adamu invited him to Warri for the job, saying this is his first time being involved in a robbery.