Police corporal confesses to doubling as a robber at night

Oboko (left) and Amandi (right)

An armed robbery suspect, Chris Oboko, a corporal attached to the C4I unit of the Nigeria Police in Rivers State, has confessed to investigators how an informant “lured” him into a gang of car snatchers. 35-year-old Oboko, who has now been dismissed from the force, was recently 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. Oboko, who joined the force in 2003 said he was living at the police barracks on Iche Street, Borokiri, Port Harcourt, while ‘moonlighting’ as a robber. He first served at the Boroki Police Division, before being transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad. He told journalists that he became a member of the C4I unit after that.
But in 2015, Oboko decided to join the ranks of the men of the underworld whom he had sworn to protect the society against. He said in his statement, "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.
The suspect said on their second operation, three of them stole three Toyota Camry cars from the D-line motor park in Port Harcourt in a single day.
He said, "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."
Through the confessions of other members of the gang, it was learnt that Oboko was also the armourer of his gang. Apart from that, he allegedly used his police identity to give the members of the gang safe passage anytime they stole or snatched a vehicle. He was also said to have perfected the process of producing fake vehicle documents for each vehicle that his gang members snatched. The arrest of Oboko came after weeks of tracking by IRT operatives, following information given by Amandi who had earlier been apprehended.
Twenty-seven-year-old Amandi, a Bayelsa State indigene, said he was a commercial bus driver before he ventured into armed robbery specialising in car snatching. He said 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. Amandi said he did many operations in the night with Oboko but that whenever he was arrested, the policeman always came to his rescue by simply telling whoever had arrested him that he was an informant working for the C4I.

The police have said efforts are on to arrest other members of the gang, while Oboko would be charged with armed robbery soon.