Police Recover N10m Stolen Goods

Ebonyi State Police Com
mand has recovered a stolen truck filled with goods worth over N10 million in the popular Abakpa Main Market in Abakaliki, the state capital.
The command’s spokesman, Mr. Chris Anyanwu, in an interview, said the goods, Peak Milk, were stolen in Onitsha in Anambra by a five-man gang led by its mastermind, one Ikechukwu Joseph.
Ikechukwu, 21, a wheel barrow pusher, who hails from Ezza North in Ebonyi State, was said to be an expert in the business. Other members of the gang include Ayo Adebowale, 21, from Ogun State; Ogwuta Ikechukwu, 21, from Ebonyi and Iruka Lazarus, 35, from Ebonyi State;
Anyanwu explained that it was when the owner of the goods, Amaobi Nwachukwu, business merchant, had finished loading trucks of Peak milk and was about dispatching the trucks to the various business contacts that Ikechukwu quickly contacted one of his syndicates, one Saidu Ibrahim, who deplored the security gadgets in the car and drove it.
Ibrahim, a mechanic, resides in Orefite town, Ugwu Abor in Anambra State and an indigene of Itire village in Osun State was alleged to have moulded different types of key and eventually one fitted into the car, started it and then drove to Asaba in Delta State before they renegotiated to Abakaliki.
According to the PPRO, “They moved the truck to Asaba and on getting to a lonely road, he suggested to the mastermind of the crime, Ikechukwu, that they will not be safe carrying these goods in this truck and he suggested that they should hire another truck to trans-load the stuff.
“With this, they engaged the services of a Hausa man, who is driving a truck and they negotiated for him to convey the goods to Ebonyi State. On 18-8-14, they drove the truck; it was Saidu that drove the truck himself. Ikechukwu had hired his gang mates who will help offload and play other roles”.
One getting to Abakaliki, Anyanwu further explained that Ibrahim presented himself as the sales representative of  West Africa Milk Company, (WAMCO), producers of Peak milk to the eventual buyer, Emmanuel Nwafor, unknown to him that it was stolen goods.
“It has been established that the buyer acted innocently. On 18-8-14 at midnight, when they arrived, the gangs made contact with the buyer, Emmanuel Nwafor, and he could not come that night, he agreed to meet them the following morning. Around 9a.m, when he came on, they beat price.
“They said that the original price of the container is about N14 million. But he bought it at the rate of N10, 555,000. He paid advance and promised to pay the balance later, of course, Emmanuel took them to his warehouse on August 19, where they offloaded their goods and shared their loot,” Anyanwu said.
“On good information, we got policemen from the state division, led by their DPO went into the market area with a good collaboration of market leaders association here, in Abakpa. In fact, the market was ransacked and the goods were traced to the warehouse.
“First, information came from the brother of the owner of the goods, because they were aware that somehow the goods came to Abakaliki. The goods have been recovered and the complainant was happy with the development,” he added.
The Police Image maker stressed that the suspects would soon be arraigned in court, urging members of the public to volunteer useful information to the police to ward off criminals in the society as the identity of the source will be treated with utmost confidentiality.

Demolition of Arroma Roundabout, Awka, on the Enugu -Onitsha Expressway recently.