With a battalion of soldiers from Effurun Barracks, a military Joint Task Force, regular police, Marine police, the Navy, State Security Service, Delta Waterways Security Committee, and other security agencies constantly patrolling its streets, Warri may be described as one of the most policed cities in the country.
One would expect that with the presence of these security personnel, Warri, a mojor town in oil-rich-Delta State, should be crime-free. Yet, the residents believe that the crime rate has continued to rise.
Compelled by the activities of criminals, traders, owners of filling stations and other entrepreneurs, had decided to shut down their businesses before sunset every day. But this did not prevent daring armed robbers from operating with impunity, even in daylight.
Although human life is considered to be cheap in Nigeria, in Warri, it comes even cheaper and sometimes without a price at all. It is not unusual to find as many as three dead bodies on a single street with people going about their business as if it means nothing to them.
Penultimate week, men of the underworld continued their onslaught on the city with the killing of two men who had gone to a commercial bank in the city to withdraw an undisclosed sum of money.
The suspected robbers also shot a female passerby during the operation, damaging part of her face. She was later rushed to a nearby hospital by sympathisers.
In their usual style, the criminals, who wore army uniforms, had trailed their victims from the premises of the bank and ambushed their car around the popular Effurun roundabout.
They immediately shot the two men dead and bolted with the cash, while shooting sporadically into the air to scare away passersby. In the ensuing chaos, a motorcycle rider was shot in the leg, while a female victim was shot in the face before the hoodlums bolted with the their loot.
A few days later, there was serious tension in Ovwian community, on the outskirts of the city when another set of suspected bandits killed two residents of the area and left many injured.
Sources told CRIME DIGEST that one of the victims of the onslaught was an official of the Udu Central Vigilance group. A security man attached to Okuku Layout, Ovwian, was also killed during the attack.
The deceased vigilance member, identified as Oghenetejiri Kupa, was said to be in his early 30s, while the security man, whom his colleagues identified as Kingsley Orji, was 38 years old.
Describing the incident, the chairman, Udu Central Vigilance group, Mr. Prosper Erhinyojare, said, “At about 2.15 am on Tuesday, we got a distress call from one of the residents of Okuku Layout, behind Jigbale Mmarket in Ovwian that armed robbers were operating in the area.
“We quickly dispatched four men to the scene to apprehend them. But before we got to the junction, the gunmen shot our driver, Oghenetejiri Kupa, who was from Ujewu in Udu Local Government Area of Delta State, in the head and chest and he died on the spot.”
Similarly, gunmen shot dead a mobile policeman and kidnapped an expatriate after the latter had withdrawn some money from a bank in Warri.
The hoodlums took away the rifle of the policeman, who was left in a pool of his own blood inside a white Hiace bus on Deco Road. He was believed to be on escort duty.
The hoodlums again struck last week, killing four persons, including an accountant in one of the commercial banks in the city.
However, the state police command has paraded a three-man armed robbery gang operating in military uniforms, whom they also said claimed responsibility for the murder of some military personnel and policemen.
The names of the suspects were given as Stanley Sapele, 30, Godbless Ebipade, 24 and Alfred Akaebe, 21.
The suspects, also alleged to have been involved in sea piracy, were arrested by the Department of Marine Police, who worked on intelligence reports from the Intelligence Department of the Nigerian Navy Ship in Delta.
The Area Commander, Warri, ACP Abutu Yaro, who paraded the suspected robbers, said they threw their bag containing weapons into the river when they were rounded up by security forces in the state.
‘’They were all caught in full Nigeria Army camouflage uniforms by the Marine Department of the Nigerian Police Force. The suspects were arrested with two cutlasses, and some other weapons.
‘’In the process of arresting them, they threw a bag suspected to be ammunition into the water. As I speak with you, the Marine Department is making frantic efforts to recover the bag.’’
“They have confirmed that they are responsible for the nefarious activities in Warri and environs, attacking security agencies, killing them and making away with their guns.’’
Disturbed by the rising casualties as a result of bank’ customers trailed and shot by the bandits, the leadership of the Delta State Police Command also met with bank executives in Warri.
Though details of the discussions were not made available to journalists, a security source said that the meeting bordered on allegations that some officials of the banks in the oil-rich city were in the habit of giving out information on customers withdrawals to the bandits.
The Commissioner of Police in Delta State, Mr. Mamman Tsafe, who met with the bank executives to proffer solutions to the unfettered robbery operations involving their customers in the area, said the meeting was part of the decision of the police to cooperate with the banks.
Tsafe told journalists that the arrest of a kidnapping kingpin and the recovery of a rifle earlier snatched from the police by bandits, was a breakthrough in the fight against crime in the state.
The state police boss said that an attempt to kidnap one Chief Joseph Odjeni of No 96 Orhwohorun was foiled by the police in Ovwian police division and some youths in the area, adding that the kingpin, one Jackson, from whom an Ak 47 rifle marked 16094 with 15 rounds of live ammunition and a Toyota Camry car were recovered, was responsible for some of the kidnapping cases in the town.
He said that the police had been on the trail of Jackson for sometime in respect of various crimes in the state, saying that the suspect was also being held for the murder of one Bernard Abugewa, a brother to a former local government chairman of Uvwie LG.
In what is viewed as a retaliatory move, the police said that the security situation was not as bad as painted publicly, claiming that it killed at least six suspected armed robbers in different locations in the last few days.
CRIME DIGEST
learnt that while three were killed in a shootout along Udu/Warri Road, another two were felled around Uti junction in separate operations led by Corporal Onyeh Kelechi and Madaki Gambo, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, respectively.
The three suspected criminals, who were killed along Udu, were said to have seized a woman, Mrs. Precious Owolo, with her 18-month old baby before she was tucked in the back of the car.
The victim’s Toyota Matrix was taken away by the culprits who were variously shot in their heads and legs by the police, before she was transferred into another car marked CU 62 RBC.
The killing of the other suspected robbers, which took place around the popular Uti, PTI Road, was said to have occurred when the bandits opened fire on the security men on sighting them before the police retaliated.
Tsafe, who addressed journalists on the latest incident, said the latest onslaught on the men of the underworld was in total compliance with the directive of the new Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, to strengthen security in the entire state.
He described the renewed offensive against the bandits as a breakthrough, adding that the police would not sit back and watch men of the underworld decimate their officers.
But a resident explained why armed robbers had laid siege to Warri and why it was difficult for the security agencies to fight crime in the city.
He said, ‘’Most people here have taken crime as a way of life. So it is difficult to tackle crime in an area like this. Now it’s no more breaking of doors or windows, but the breaking of walls of houses during robbery operations. It’s even more horrible and terrifying after they labour to break into your house and you have nothing to give them.
“It is also a fact that some policemen are simply agents of criminals. If you pass information to the police, they will expose you to the same hoodlums who come after you after paying their way out. The police are major beneficiaries of crime proceeds here, so they cannot fight crime effectively.’’
