Operatives of the Rivers State Police Command, have arrested two suspected armed robbers in the Olu Obasanjo area of Port Harcourt.
The suspects, Ikenna Obiko, 30 years old, and Isichukwu Eneji, 24 years old, were apprehended while riding on a motorcycle.
The police public relations officer (PPRO), Grace Iringe-Koko, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt yesterday, said the two suspects confessed to multiple crimes.
Iringe-Koko said the duo revealed that they specialise in loitering outside the premises of banks and gauging the amount of money customers withdrew.
She said whenever the suspects notice any bank customer with a sizeable withdrawal, they trail them in their motorcycle and when they see an opportunity to pounce, they rob them.
The statement said the duo also revealed that on some occasions, they just wait for the bank customers to park their vehicles and they proceed to open the vehicles with a master key that they had crafted and cart away with the money withdrawn and any other valuables.
The police spokesperson stated that the suspects admitted to hotwiring and stealing parked motorcycles, as well as robbing unsuspecting bank customers of their money at ATMs around Olu Obasanjo and Aba Road.
Iringe-Koko stated that the two robbery suspects were recently involved in a robbery case involving a pick-up vehicle conveying Indomie supplies where they forcefully took one hundred thousand Naira (N100,000) from the driver.
She said police investigations confirmed that the two suspects had, within this year, stolen three motorcycles, one of which has been recovered and is now at the Borikiri Police Station in Port Harcourt.
The PPRO said two motorcycles were stolen from where their owners parked them along Choba Road and Eliozu, all in Port Harcourt.
Iringe-Koko stated that both suspects, now in police custody at the Borikiri Police Station, hail from Oguta in Imo State.
She said, “Ikenna, a father of two children, claimed that he was lured into a life of crime by one of his community leaders (now deceased).
“Isichukwu, who has fathered three children, said his late uncle tutored him in the art of robbery.
“Police investigation shows that the suspects both relocated to Port Harcourt last year following the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) crisis in Imo State and other parts of the South East.”
Meanwhile, the Rivers State commissioner of police, Olatunji Disu, has directed that the two suspects be charged immediately in an appropriate court of law.
Disu enjoined Rivers’ residents to be vigilant while carrying out banking transactions and to avoid making stops whenever they have a substantial amount of money or other valuables in their cars.
He also encouraged banks to report any suspicious activity around their premises to the police.
The police commissioner urged members of the public to continue to be law-abiding and support the police in the fight to rid Rivers State of crimes and criminality.
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