A member of the armed robbery syndicate, Abdulmumini Momojimo, who allegedly uses tricycle (Keke NAPEP) to rob passengers within Lokoja and its environs, has been arrested by operatives attached to Operation Puff Adder in Kogi State Police Command, in synergy with the members of a vigilante group.
According to the state police spokesman, DSP William Ovye Aya, in a statement on Friday, March 5, 2021, the suspect, with his gang members currently at large, robbed a passenger who boarded a tricycle from the Dumanis Church junction, along Ganaja road, to Ganaja on February 26, at about 7p.m.
“Immediately after the 200 Units Junction, one of the robbers, who posed as a passenger, covered the victim’s mouth and put a knife on her neck while the gang dispossessed her of two Android phones, voter’s card, Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card and the sum of N10,000.
“Thereafter, they pushed her out of the tricycle and ran away. Immediately, the victim stopped another approaching tricycle and narrated her ordeal to the driver, which made him offer to chase the robbers and raise an alarm,” the PPRO stated.
He said that this made the police operatives who were nearby, and the vigilante group members, to go after the criminals.
He added that when they sighted the police, the robbers abandoned their tricycle with registration number MPA 139 VC, and escaped.
After the tricycle was recovered to the police station, Aya said that the police started intelligence-based investigation, which led them to the owner of the tricycle.
The owner, however, disclosed that he gave the tricycle to a driver to use as a commercial means of generating income, out of which he used to be paid.
Thenewsbearer learnt that when the driver was called, he mentioned the arrested suspect as the one he gave the tricycle to operate.
This led the police to arrest Momojimo, and during interrogation, he opened up that he was of the three gang members who operated on the day their victim was attacked and dispossessed of her valuables.
He narrated how he and other gang members posed as passengers to operate at dusk or night time.
He denied being the one who drove on the day of the operation, saying that it was the driver employed by the tricycle owner who handled it on the day of the operation.
Commending Puff Adder operatives and members of the vigilante group for the breakthrough, the state Commissioner of Police, Ede Ayuba Ekpeji assured Kogi indigenes and residents of the command’s determination, in synergy with other security agencies, to ensure adequate security of lives and property in the state.
He directed the operatives to work towards arresting other members of the syndicate at large, adding that the arrested suspect would be charged to court on completion of investigation.
