Operatives attached to the Inspector-General of Police Special
Intelligence, Response Team, IRT, have arrested two men who admitted to
killing three policemen escorting senior workers of Total Oil Nigeria, Vanguard has reported.
The suspects disclosed that they killed the policemen and a civilian driver along Woji area of Port-Harcourt, Rivers State.
The civilian killed during the attack was later identified as a
driver to the vehicle, while the AK-47 rifles in possession of the
policemen were all carted away by the suspects.
The suspects have been identified as Godwill Jackson 22 and Dumlebabari Mbane 28.
Mbane said: “The last operation we went for was at Woji area of
Port Harcourt. We were four that went for the operation. We snatched a
sienna car and used it to rob a super market at Ada George. I don’t know
the exact amount we took from that shop before we moved to the next
shop at Woji. At the Woji shop, we robbed them of cash and other
valuables.
We took everything to Elechi where we shared all our loots. On
that last operation, we attacked some policemen. We accosted the
policemen on the road, in Woji area and killed them. Smart and Ibinabo
took the rifles of the policemen. I was later given one of their
rifles.”
The downfall of the suspects started in November, after IRT
operatives arrested them for another crime, but later found out during
investigation that they were part of a gang members that killed three
police escorts and a civilian driver. The gang allegedly specialised in
snatching Toyota Sienna vans and robbing super markets in Port Harcourt,
Rivers State.
A police source said: “The policemen and the civilian lost
their lives while providing security escort to top managers working with
Total Oil Nigeria Plc. The managers and their entourage, who were
returning from a courtesy visit, when they were attacked in September
2018, after the civilian driver missed his way and veered into Woji area
of Port Harcourt, through Ada-George in a bid to reverse.
The death of the three policemen was said to have pained the IG
so much, that he ordered the IRT, led by a Deputy Commissioner of
Police (DCP), Abba Kyari, to take the investigation as a special one and
fish out the killers of the policemen. The police initially thought the
policemen were killed when the suspects attempted to abduct the
management men of Total Oil Nigeria.
The IRT operatives were still investigating the murder of the
three policemen and the driver, when they got another information that a
British-Nigeria National, Professor Mrs. Belgaum had been abducted. A
team was immediately ordered to follow the trail of the kidnappers of
Belgaum before it goes cold. It was in the course of keenly following
the trail that IRT men stumbled on Jackson and Mbane, thinking they were
just car snatchers. Further investigations revealed that they were
killers.
A police source said: “The suspects confessed to being
responsible for the killing of the three policemen and their driver. The
suspects said they were on a random robbery operation on a super
markets along, Ada-George and Woji areas of Port Harcourt, dispossessing
customers of their valuables and mobile phones, when they accosted the
driver carrying the policemen.
The suspects, who were also armed with Ak-47 rifles, opened
fire on the policemen and the driver, killing them on the spot. We were
following IG’s instructions, trailing kidnappers of Mrs. Belgaum, who
was abducted and released after an unknown amount was paid as ransom,
when we busted the car snatching and robbery gang. Professor Belgaum, a
British Nigerian, is a medical doctor working at the University of
Port-Harcourt Teaching Hospital, (UPTH). We learned that the people who
kidnapped the Professor carried out the operation, using a black Toyota
Sienna. When we contacted our informants within Port- Harcourt, they
gave us identities of the suspects, Dumlebabari Mbane and Godswill
Jackson.
We went after them and got them arrested. “The suspects, however, confessed during interrogations that they were not part of the gang who kidnapped Professor Belgaum. They admitted to have taken part in the killing of the three policemen and their driver at Woji area of the state. They led us to recover two Toyota Sienna vans which they snatched at Port Harcourt. We also recovered the two Ak-47 rifles, which they took from the policemen they killed.”
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