I yielded to pressure from friends to form robbery gang – Suspect – Newstrends
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I yielded to pressure from friends to form robbery gang – Suspect

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3 years ago

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Chigozie Anene

A 29-year-old man identified as Chigozie Anene has confessed that he went into armed robbery, particularly the snatching of tricycles to boost his second-hand clothes business and give his late father a befitting burial.

Anene also revealed that he and his gang members were buying stolen goods from burglars and armed robbers.

He said he used to steal expensive cars and tricycles and sell them at give away price. For instance, he said, they could sell a car worth N10 million for half a million naira.

Police sources said he had a tricycle mechanic who was helping him to change some parts of a tricycle he had stolen so that whoever would buy it would not suspect that it was stolen. Anene was said to have gone into hiding after his gang was bursted by the Inspector General of Police’s Intelligence Response Team (IRT).

Revealing how the he was arrested by IRT operatives, the source said the operatives tactically asked Anene whether he had a tricycle he wanted to sell, with one of the IRT operatives posing as a buyer. But he was arrested as soon as he surfaced in a meeting with the ‘buyer’.

Narrating how he began the venture into armed robbery, Anene, a father of two, said: “I live in a one-room apartment at No. 4 Mosalasi Street, Igando, Lagos.

“I used to operate as one-man gang, singlehandedly stealing tricycles in my neighbourhood.

“My problem started when one Tunbu and one Prince became my friends and lured me into forming a three-man robbery gang to make bigger money.

“They convinced me that there is less risk in snatching cars than tricycles and that stolen cars have more standby buyers.”

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Asked why he preferred to operate as a one-man gang, he said he operated without a gun or the risk of being exposed by any arrested gang member.

He added: “The urge to give my father a befitting burial contributed most to my forming a robbery gang as well as getting enough money to boost my second-hand clothes business and live big like some of my mates.

“When I decided to stop armed robbery, my members nearly assassinated me because they felt that they were no longer safe and they would not be able to rest after any robbery operation, because I could become a police informant.”

On what other thing that pushed him into armed robbery, he said: “When I wanted to start second-hand clothes business, there was no capital and no collateral to borrow money with.

“To make matters worse, my father had no savings and did not leave anything of value that I could sell to get some money to start business with.

“She was not happy about it, but there was nothing she could have done to stop me because I was desperate to get money to boost my business and give my late father a befitting burial.

“It was last year that my father died. I went to bury him and came back. Unfortunately, one boy carried my market, sold it and ran to Cotonou.

“When I went to their house and could not find him, I carried his elder brother’s generator and sold it for N6,000.

“My problem worsened when one of my friends named Kaka said we should do business together, not knowing that what he meant was for us to form a car snatching gang.

“He told me that we should start lifting and selling Big Daddy (Toyota) cars and fairly used tricycles to make more money.

“The first Big Daddy car and so called fairly used tricycles we got, I could not account for any of them because my members refused to tell me whether they sold them or not.

“Rather, they kept telling me that the police were pursuing them and they had to abandon the stolen vehicles, which sounded to me like a cock and bull story. They have not given me a dime from the stolen vehicles.

“When I tried to locate Kaka, they told me that he had relocated to his village while Tunbu’s whereabouts are still not known to till now.”

Asked his advice for people who are still into crime, he said: “Crime is a curse; run away from it while your legs can still carry you.

“Stealing and armed robbery have only two bus stops: prison and graveyard.”

The Nation

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BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

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10 hours ago

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November 14, 2024

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BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

The federal government has unveiled a proposed budget of N47.9 trillion for the 2025 fiscal year.

Atiku Bagudu, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, disclosed this to journalists on Thursday following the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu.

Bagudu revealed that the council had approved the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for 2025-2027.

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According to the minister, the government has pegged the crude oil benchmark at $75 per barrel, with an oil production target of 2.06 million barrels per day (bpd).

The budget also sets the exchange rate at N1,400 per dollar and aims for a gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 6.4%.

 

BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

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EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

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10 hours ago

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November 14, 2024

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EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) told FIJ that they have arrested Timber Wabote, the former executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCMB), on the grounds of a failed $35 million Bayelsa refinery project fraud.

Dele Oyewale, the EFCC’s spokesperson, confirmed this to FIJ on Thursday.

“It is true,” Oyewale responded to FIJ’s inquiries.

Wabote is accused of misappropriating public funds for a refinery project that should have improved local energy production.

Vanguard reported that the NCDMB under Wabote paid $35 million to support the development of energy infrastructure in the Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa, yet there was nothing to show for it.

The EFCC picked Wabote up following the arrest of Akintoye Adeoye Akindele, the Managing Director of Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited, for alleged misappropriation, money laundering and diversion of $35 million in public funds.

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“NCDMB under the watch of Wabote allegedly paid the $35 million to Akindele to build a 2,000 barrel per day (BPD), refinery, jetty, gas plant, power plant, data centre and tank farm at Brass free trade zone (FTZ), Okpoama Community in Brass LGA of Bayelsa State,” a source with the EFCC had explained.

Since December 2020 when the payments were made, Akindele abandoned the project with little or nothing to show for the huge sum he received.

Preliminary investigations showed that Wabote’s NCDMB financed 17 different projects, including the 2,000 BPD refinery in Brass LGA.

There has been a series of public fund misappropriation cases in the energy sector in recent times.

FIJ earlier reported that members of the House of Representatives summoned three ministers to defend how over $2 billion was spent on renewable energy with not much to show for it.

A recent FIJ report also recently detailed how residents of Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa, have not had power in their homes since July due to the vandalisation of the Ahoada-Yenagoa transmission towers caused by unidentified persons.

The Bayelsa state government told FIJ it was the federal government’s responsibility to provide electricity for residents. The state has no renewable energy options reliable enough to power its capital despite the multi-million-dollar NCMB energy project.

Transparency in the energy sector has become necessary at a time when Nigerians have suffered power instability due to frequent grid collapses.

EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

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Court adjourns Yahaya Bello’s trial till Nov 27

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11 hours ago

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November 14, 2024

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Yahaya Bello

Court adjourns Yahaya Bello’s trial till Nov 27

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has requested an adjournment in the new case against the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, stating that the 30-day window for the previously issued summons is still active.

The commission has granted administrative bail to his co-defendants, Umar Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu, and asked the court for an extension of time for Bello to appear.

At the resumed hearing before Justice Maryann Anenih of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja, EFCC Counsel Jamiu Agoro noted that the court’s order from October 3rd had not yet expired.

“In that wise, we feel it will not be appropriate for us to take proceedings while that 30 days is still running. So we have discussed and agreed to come back on the 27th day of November, 2024, my lord,” he told the court.

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He also mentioned that the previously set date of November 20th was not convenient for the prosecution counsels.

Counsel to the second defendant, Aliyu Saiki, SAN, confirmed that his client had been granted administrative bail by the prosecution and had no objection to the adjournment request. The third defendant’s counsel, ZE Abass, concurred.

The prosecution counsel also requested the court to allow the notice of hearing to be pasted on the last known address of the first defendant.

After hearing from all counsels, the judge granted the EFCC’s application for adjournment and the issuance of the hearing notice.

“I have considered the application for adjournment by the complainant and issuance of hearing notice and the submission by the second and third defendants. The application is granted,” she said.

Justice Anenih then adjourned the case to November 27th for arraignment.

The former governor, alongside Umar Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu, are being prosecuted as 1st to 3rd defendants, respectively, in a fresh 16-count charge instituted against them by the EFCC.

Court adjourns Yahaya Bello’s trial till Nov 27

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