Police nab 11 ‘one chance’ robbery suspects, recover car in Abuja

The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) says its operatives have arrested 11 “one chance” robbery suspects in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

Olumuyiwa Adejobi, force public relations officer, said this at a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja while detailing the operatives’ successes in the past week.

“One chance” is a type of robbery in which unsuspecting passengers are lured into commercial vehicles whose occupants are robbers.

Adejobi said the police received intelligence on January 16 that disclosed the activities of the “one chance” robbers in Gwagwalada, Area 1, AYA, Giri, and Wuse axis of the FCT.

He said the suspects — seven females and four males — were arrested on February 19 after the police traced and arrested them at their hideout in Karmo.

“Upon their arrest and consequent interrogation, the suspects confessed to be involved in ‘one-chance’ operations and have been running it for over a year,” the police spokesperson said.

Adejobi added that the male suspects were arrested with their wives who reportedly confessed to the crime.

“They will make sure that the front seat occupied by one of their members is adjusted to ensure that it will not be comfortable for their expected victim to sit with their member,” Adejobi said, detailing their mode of operation.

“Once they get their victim and open the front door for her to enter, it will be so uncomfortable that, the knees of the two persons occupying the front seat will be touching the dashboard of the car.

“At this time, they will tell their victim to come down so that they can adjust the chair and in the process, one of them will offer to hold her bag so that they can adjust the seat.

“While adjusting the chair and offering to hold bag for the victim, they will steal her phone.

“Once they succeed in stealing the phone, they will tell the victim that they are not going to her direction again and will zoom off before she will realise that her phone has been stolen.”

He added that the stolen phone would enable the robbers to withdraw all the money in the account of their victim.

POLICE ARREST 10 FOR GUNRUNNING, RESCUE KIDNAPPED VICTIMS

Adejobi also said the intelligence response team (IRT), on February 9, arrested 10 suspects over criminal conspiracy, trans-border gunrunning, and illegal fabrication of firearms.

He said two Ak-47 rifles, nine automatic pistols and 1,800 rounds of live ammunition were recovered from the suspects.

“During investigation, it came to light that one of the suspects is a trans-border arms and ammunition supplier based in Cross River,” he said.

“He usually gets supplies of AK47 rifles, ammunition, and rocket launchers from four other suspects based in Plateau, who in turn, supply same to some rebels and other criminal elements in a neighbouring country.

“One of the suspects has confessed to have sold four Ak-47 rifles belonging to his late father who was a police officer, instead of handing them over to legal authorities.”

Adejobi also said the police had in the past two weeks, arrested 92 suspects over armed robbery, and 153 for kidnapping.

He said 35 kidnap victims were rescued while seven stolen vehicles were recovered.

According to the spokesperson, nine other suspects were arrested over cultism, with 44 arms and 477 ammunition of various calibre recovered.