The Abia State Police Command has apprehended and publicly presented a suspected armed robber known as Kingsley Emezue, also identified as Pakins, alongside his accomplices Enyinna Asiegbu (25) and Promise Sunday Obilor, aka Esere (26), for the alleged murder of a couple in front of their three children.
Commissioner Ene Okon of the Abia State Police informed reporters that the detained suspects were affiliated with Sampson Iheukwumere Nwokocha, also known as Grave, a notorious robber who was killed by the police in December.
He stated that the suspects, who had initially gone into hiding after their gang leader’s death, returned to Umuahia in January 2020, believing that the search for them had been called off.
“The gang appeared to have laid low and reappeared on January 10, 2020, seemingly to recover expenses incurred during the holidays. On January 25, 2020, a group of six, traveling in a tricycle, seized a Toyota Sienna van with license plate RBC477RL, along Health Center Road in World Bank Housing Estate, Umuahia.
“Operating in the Sienna van, the gang fatally shot a couple, Mr and Mrs Darlington Chinyere Uzoma, on Secretariat Road, Ogwurube Layout, Umuahia. This occurred after they robbed the couple of their day’s earnings.
“They also robbed and fatally shot Basil Okechukwu from Obowo, Imo State, on January 16, near Post Office Umuahia Road. Okechukwu was killed while in transit with money he had withdrawn from the bank.
“Officers from the Central Police Station in Umuahia and operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) on ‘Operation Puff Adder’ pursued the hoodlums and intercepted a tricycle transporting two of the suspects named Precious Chukwuebuka Okoro and Ogbonna Ifeanyichukwu Justice. Interrogation of the duo led to the subsequent arrest of the other gang members, Enyinna Asiegbu (25), Promise Sunday Obilor (26) aka Esere, and Emezue Kingsley (20) aka Pakins.”
Emezue claimed to be a butcher when questioned by reporters and disclosed that he had been lured into armed robbery by bad influences.
“We actually carried out the robbery operation on Saturday night, but I did not shoot the couple. It was our driver who shot them.”