[ 2016-06-27 ]

I am policeman, pastor in the day, robber at night – Suspect confesses
corporal identified as Chris Oboko has revealed
how he operated as a policeman during the day and
an armed robber at night.

Oboko was attached to the C4I unit of the Nigeria
Police Force, NPF in Rivers State.

Until his arrest, he said he was a resident a
police barracks on Iche Street, Borokiri, Port
Harcourt.

Oboko, who also claimed to be a pastor, first
served at the Boroki Police Division, before being
transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad,
SARS.

He told newsmen on Saturday how an informant lured
him into a gang of car snatchers, something he
‘could not simply resist.’

Recounting his experience, the 35-year-old who
joined the force in 2003 said he encountered two
members of a robbery and kidnapping gang, who were
in the process of selling the cars they got from
one of their victims.

He confessed, “In 2015, I met Johnpaul Amandi,
one of our informants when he took two vehicles he
stole from one of his kidnapping victims to one
Victor Nwogu to sell. I met them while they were
negotiating the price and I told them I would join
their operation.

“After I became a member, I always found a way
to get the members of the gang released whenever
they were arrested by the police. I am even the
resident Pastor of Battle Axe Assembly Church at
Chuba Allo in Port Harcourt. I know this business
is evil and shouldn’t have joined but I could
not resist the temptation.”

Oboko, who chronicled his crime spree with the
gang, admitted that he led three other members of
the gang to snatch a Toyota Camry at D-line area
of Port Harcourt few months ago, which his gang
sold for N200,000. Out of the proceeds, he said he
got N70,000.

“On our second operation, three of us stole
three Toyota Camry cars from the D-line motor park
in Port Harcourt in a single day.

“Victor Nwogu in Owerri is the one that helped
sell off the vehicles. He gave us N360, 000 after
selling the cars and I got N150, 000 as my share.
I remember that we also snatched a Toyota Corolla
from Elelanwo area of Port Harcourt.

“I pointed a gun at the driver and he ran out of
his vehicle. We sold that one for N250,000 out of
which I got a share of N80,000. There was a Toyota
Spider we also snatched at gunpoint around GRA in
Port Harcourt.

“We hid it somewhere at Borokiri Sand Field. But
before we arrived there in the morning, the car
had been removed.”

Oboko added he was the armourer of his gang as he
used his police identity to give the members of
the gang safe passage anytime they stole or
snatched a vehicle.

His arrest however came after weeks of tracking by
IRT operatives, following information given by
Amandi who had earlier been apprehended.

Oboko, who has now been dismissed from the force,
was arrested in Port Harcourt, during a mop-up of
criminal elements responsible for incessant
robberies and carjacking in the state by the
Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence
Response Team.

Investigators in the case said Oboko’s arrest
seems to validate the shade of opinion that ‘bad
eggs’ in the force are responsible for the bad
conduct of some policemen.

His syndicate, Amandi, a Bayelsa State indigene,
said he was a commercial bus driver before he
ventured into armed robbery specialising in car
snatching adding that his gang was so good at
snatching and stealing cars that on one single
night, his second operation after joining the
robbery gang, they got five cars.

Explaining how he met Oboko, the 27-year-old said,
“Two friends of mine kidnapped a former local
government chairman in Bayelsa State and brought
two cars taken from the man to me to sell in Port
Harcourt.

“When I was checking the cars in Nembe
Waterside, Corporal Oboko and one of his
colleagues confronted us and took the cars away
from us. Instead of taking the vehicles to their
station, they made it theirs.
“Three months after that, he saw me on the road
and asked me to forgive him and said that he would
like me to work with him. He took me to his boss
at C4I and he told him that I was highly
resourceful and I could become an informant giving
the police information about armed robbers in the
state.

“His boss told me that if I could assist with
information, I would be rewarded well and I
accepted. I even gave them information that led to
the arrest of big armed robbers in Port Harcourt
from whom they recovered arms and ammunition.

“After one month of being an informant, Corporal
Oboko said one of the cars he took from me was
giving him trouble and he needed another car. He
said he needed a brand new car. I told him that I
had stopped stealing cars since I had started
working with the car snatching gang, but he
insisted. He then said I should not worry and said
that he would follow me to wherever I wanted to
steal the car.

“On our first outing together, we stole a Honda
‘End of Discussion’. He gave his father the
first car and started using the new one. He then
encouraged that we should go for more robberies
because he had seen how easy the first operation
was. He also arranged with Victor in Owerri, who
received and sold the vehicles for us.

“I did many operations in the night with Oboko
but whenever I was arrested, Oboko always came to
my rescue by simply telling whoever had arrested
me that I was an informant working for the C4I,”
Amandi stated, disclosing further that it seemed
car snatching in the night was not enough for
Oboko.

Amadi said he told him one day that he was tired
of operating in the dead of the night and said
they needed to graduate to car snatching at
gunpoint in broad daylight.

He said, “I thought Corporal Oboko was joking
but few days after, he brought two pistols to me.
He said he bought the guns. We snatched many cars
around Port Harcourt, but even though we used to
share the proceeds equally in the past, it got to
a time that he started to cheat me.

“He would sometimes refuse to give me my own
share and sometimes, he would not involve me in an
operation. He started bypassing me to work with
other boys I introduced to him. Not long after
that, I was arrested and told the police about
him.”

Meanwhile, the state Police Public Relations
Officer, PRO, Mr. Ahmad Muhammad, said efforts are
on to arrest other members of the gang, while
Oboko would be charged with armed robbery soon.

The PPRO revealed that while Oboko investigated as
a policeman, he took two pistols away from the
suspect, and rather than file them as exhibits, he
converted the guns to the use of his gang.

Oboko was also said to have perfected the process
of producing fake vehicle documents for each
vehicle that his gang members snatched and would
alter the vehicle engine and chassis numbers
before transporting it to the buyer.

Source - Daily Post

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