The suspect, Abubakar, was dismissed from the services of the Nigerian Army for misconduct. He took to armed robbery shortly after specialising in stealing cars.
Upon his arrest, he and his gang members were found to be in possession of 10 vehicles including Toyota Hilux trucks, Toyota Corolla cars, Pontiac Vibe GT, Honda Lexus Jeep and a Toyota RAV4, ready for body work and onward sale.
The suspect was until his dismissal a Corporal. His last posting was at the Army School of Artillery, Kachia, Kaduna State. He told how he was lured into armed robbery by one of his friends in Kaduna, who later introduced him to a criminal group.
He said he used his experience as a former soldier to talk to the security operatives at check points each time, they drove a stolen car and that because of his usual calmness and how he spoke to them, they usually granted him free passage.
The suspect said they targeted only clean cars: “We usually snatched them from their owners at gun point and sometimes stole them from where they were parked. To shop for such vehicles, we used to visit residential quarters, estates, shopping malls, markets, churches mosque, recreation centres among other busy areas to steal these cars.”
On spotting exact vehicles they wanted from parking lots, the dismissed soldier said they usually carried out enough surveillance due diligence to ensure the owners were not close by before stealing them: “While the person who is going to drive the vehicle from where it is parked is armed with a master key to open the vehicle no matter the security installed in them, others will be patrolling the entire parking lot to monitor movement of cars whose owners are close by.
He said most times he would take over the wheels because of the several security checkpoints. As a former soldier, he would greet the security operatives and say “esprit-de-corp” and at the same time flag his fake identity card and they would let him pass.
This he continued for a long time until the police got winds of their nefarious acts and placed him alongside his gang members on a wanted list unknown to him.
On the fateful day, he thought it was business as usual. He embarked on his criminal journey, succeeded in stealing a car but denied access when he got to the same security checkpoints he had been driving through without questioning.
He greeted the personnel in the usual way. But they asked him to step out of the vehicle for proper identification. He as usual flagged his identification card but the police personnel from the Force Intelligence Department-Special Tactical Squad (FID-STS), acted differently.
He came out from the vehicle. It was during interrogation that they found the identity card with him was fake and that he is a dismissed soldier. The operatives contacted the Nigerian Army. It was confirmed that he was dismissed from the army for misconduct. He was immediately arrested with some of his gang members and taken into custody. They confessed to the crime and made statements surrounding their operations.
Abubakar said he regretted his acts. He never knew he would be arrested by the police. Married and has children pleaded for leniency even though he refused to say how much he made since he started the criminal act.
The suspects alongside were paraded by the Force Public Relations Officer, Anthony Placid, in Abuja. He said efforts were on to arrest other members of the gang now on the run.
