You are about to read the story of Emeka Cyprian Okeke, the 44 year-old father of three and leader of the car snatching gang that shot and killed Col Samaila Inusa of the Nigerian Army School of Infantry, Kaduna in March 2016.
Emeka and three members of his gang were recently apprehended by operatives of the Police Special Intelligence Response Team, IRT and men of the Kaduna State Police Command, Special Intelligence Bureau, SIB.
He tells his story by himself.
“I went into robbery three years ago. I started by hijacking trucks on Kontagora Road, Kaduna State. We would barricade the road, which is usually busy, with broken down vehicles and big woods. And when a truck carrying goods stops in front of our barricade, we would attack the driver and the conductor with machete and drag them into the bush. We would then hijack the truck and take it to our receiver, Dan Sokoto, who would smuggle it to Niger Republic. In our first operation, we hijacked a truck carrying 600,000 cartons of noodles. Dan Sokoto and a member of our gang, Ogbonna Nwobodo, took the goods to Niger Republic. When they returned, they brought N2 million for the goods. Dan Sokoto told me that they threw away the truck because they don’t buy trucks in Niger Republic.
“I got N300,000 as my share of the loot and I didn’t give my wife anything out of it. I was angry with her because I caught her sleeping with another man twice. I spent my money on drinks and women.
“We usually call our gang a company and Nnwobodo was the leader of the company. But because of the small money Dan Sokoto and Nwobodo brought from that first operation, our company got scattered and we didn’t do any job for five months. Dan Sokoto later called us and tried to reset the company. We had new terms for sharing of our loots, and because I am the striker who goes after the driver and conductor, I insisted on getting the lion’s share.
“We hijacked another vehicle carrying spaghetti on the same route and Ogbonna took the truck to Dan Sokoto and they took it to Niger and sold. I got N330,000, which was higher that what I used to get.
“On our third operation, we hijacked another truck carrying spaghetti and we asked Dan Sokoto to get us two pistols with the goods and pay us the balance in cash. He got us two pistols and brought N1 million which we all shared. Since we got two pistols, I decided to sideline Nwobodo and his boys. I formed my own company and I brought in Chijoke, Ebere, Kabiru and we went fully into car snatching.
“We snatched a 2005 Toyota Sienna and we told Dan Sokoto that Ogbonna was no longer part of our company, and before selling any of our goods, he must ensure that I spoke with the buyer in Niger Republic myself and agree on the price. When he took the vehicle to Niger, I spoke to one Garuba and he paid us N700,000. I got N120,000 as my share and I told him that I liked the way he did the business and I promised to always get him vehicles.
“We liked doing business two times in a week because it provided us the chance to relax and monitor the environment. We collected a Toyota Corolla 2008 Model and gave it to Dan Sokoto who took it to Niger Republic and was paid N600,000. I got N200, 000 as my share. We then snatched a Honda Anaconda and we sold it for N700,000 and I got N150, 000.
“After that operation, I advised everyone to take some time off and monitor how security operatives within Kaduna would react to our actives and they all heeded my advice. We did that for two weeks and we discovered that things had started changing. Policemen had been deployed all over Kaduna and they were looking out for people who were snatching cars. I was also seeing them at areas where I don’t use to see them before.
“I called my people and told them what I noticed. We were all monitoring, and one of them called and told me that he noticed that policemen were now standing in Abuja junction and they usually hid their vehicle in a dark spot. I told my people that we must be fast in anything we did, and we also discovered new routes.
“After two weeks, God helped us and blessed us with a Toyota Venza. I told Dan Sokoto that I wanted to go to Niger and I wanted to see Garuba and Mustapha. Dan Sokoto asked me to meet him at the Kastina border, and when we crossed into Niger, I met a man who hugged me the moment he saw me and he shouted Shege Emeka three times and told me that I was a strong man.
“I told him that I wanted a big rifle because of heavy presence of policemen in our area. They told me that rifles were sold for N500,000 and loaded magazines were sold for N250,000. Garuba then said he was going to pay us N50,000 and that he would smuggle the rifles for us into Nigeria and we should go back to Nigeria and get him a Toyota Hilux.
“I told him that Hilux is difficult to snatch because it is mainly used by security operatives and we needed big guns to snatch it and its occupants could be armed. Dan Sokoto asked me to go and by the next day he would call me to meet him at Abuja junction and I should come with Ebere whose bus we were using for our operation.
“When he arrived, he called me and I called Eebre who told me he was at the mountain praying. He asked us to come to the mountain and when got there, we hid our rifles under the seat of his bus. The next day, Ebere taught me how to operate the rifle and we used it to snatch a Toyota Camry in Sabo area. Whenever we snatched a car, we would keep the owner with us in the bush and make sure that the vehicle got to Dan Sokoto and it was moved into Niger Republic. We would give the victim only pure water.
“It did not take long before we would move the car into Duala in Niger Republic. We normally dropped the person on the expressway when we had received a call from Dan Sokoto that the vehicle had arrived Niger successfully. When we told our victims that they should go, they were usually surprised, because some of them would think we had kidnapped them for ransom. We sold the Camry for N800, 000 and I got N220,000 as my share. Ebere later broke out away from our gang and formed his own gang, leaving just Chijoke, Kabiru and I in the company.
‘How I killed Col. Inusa’
“One Saturday evening, we were on the road and we saw a Mercedes jeep (SUV) and we liked the flashy light. We followed the vehicle to Kamazo area and to a house. When the driver stopped to open the gate, we went after it and discovered that the driver was a woman and a man was also seated inside. “I suspected that the man was the owner of the vehicle, so I ordered him into our own car and asked Chijioke to drive the Mercedes Benz to Dan Sokoto. Kabiru was the one driving our own car. I told the man to relax, that all I wanted was his car and we were not going to kill him. We took him into a bush at Abuja by-pass, Kaduna. “I told Kabiru to go into the bush with the man and told the man to lie down. I told him again that he was a big guy and he could always buy another vehicle. He asked for water, but when I was about to give him the water, he dived at me, collected the gun and removed the magazine. I was shocked. He gave me a head boot and beat me so much, but I held tightly to the rifle and we rolled ourselves on the floor. I don’t know what he touched and the trigger stopped working. If not for God, the man would have killed me. Luckily for me, the trigger worked and I shot him. “I didn’t know that the man was an army officer. I was surprised that he was so strong. But a few hours later when Chijioke called and told me what he saw in the man’s car, that was when I knew that I was in deep trouble. We sold the car for N900,000 and I advised everyone to go into hiding.
“The news was everywhere. Chijioke told me that he wanted to quit. We did our last operation and stole an Avalon. But we couldn’t reach Dan Sokoto when Chijioke took the car to Niger Republic by himself and sold it to Garuba, who then informed him that Dan Sokoto had been arrested by policemen at Brinikebi over a N250 million case.
“Chijioke relocated to Enugu, while I stayed back in Kaduna watching as things unfolded. Kabiru went and joined Ebere. Not long after, they were both arrested by the SIB in Kaduna.
“Last Saturday, I was in my sister’s house sleeping when policemen came into our house very early in the morning and asked for Emeka. I told them I was the one and they asked me why I killed Col. Inusa. I told them that I would reveal everything when we got to the station.
“At the station, I also helped in luring Chijioke back to Kaduna where he was arrested.“
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