Twenty-nine-year-old James Udobong, an Akwa Ibom State indigene, had always nursed a dream all his entire life – becoming a footballer for Nigeria’s national team.
After training as hard as he could in 2003, Udobong found his way to Abuja, to participate in an Under-17 trial. His hopes were high, his energy feverish, but he was dealt a soul-crushing blow.
Udobong was not picked. And so ended his hope of ever becoming a football star.
To survive, he was repairing phones at Wuse Market but soon, he could no longer pay his shop rent, according to claims.
Thus started Udobong’s journey to the criminal world of phone robbery.
He was one of many other robbery, kidnapping and fraud suspects rounded up by the Abba Kyari-led Inspector-General of Police Response Team, recently in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, for terrorising the residents.
Udobong said after he could no longer make ends meet, one of his friends suggested that he followed him to Transcorp Hilton and other five star hotels in Abuja, where they could target customers who were drunk in order to steal their phones.
He said, “My friend also taught me how to place orders online for expensive mobile phones. We tell the dealers that we were buying the phones on behalf of a prominent politician lodged in any of the five-star hotels we choose to use.
“When the dealer makes delivery, we take him to a floor of the hotel and take the phones inside a door under the guise of delivering it to the politician but the dealer wouldn’t know that door leads through a staircase downstairs.
“Usually, after taking the phone, I jump inside a waiting taxi in the ground floor and leave the hotel. But in my last operation, I brought the dealer to Transcorp and asked him to wait outside the room in order to show the phone to my principal. I got into a lift and went to the ground floor. But I was arrested by waiting security men at the hotel.”
Udobong was handed over to the police who recovered all the phones he stole from the dealer – iPhone, Infinix Note, two tablets and two Samsung Galaxy phones.
It eas learnt that the IRT had been trailing the suspect after several complaints by victims prompted the police to put hotels on alert.
Other suspects recently arrested by the IRT are Benedict Otanwa, Sunday Okopi, Monday Ijiga, Christian Akanaga, James Udobong, Abba Ayuba and Aliyu Abdulganiu. They were all arrested in separate operations in Abuja, Niger, Nassarawa and Kogi states.
One of the suspects, Akanaga, is said to be a banker arrested for allegedly defrauding another banker based in Akwa Ibom State of N140m in a forex deal.
The police said Akanaga allegedly swindled the banker under the guise of selling the dollar equivalent of the said sum to him but he eventually diverted the money for his own personal use. He was accused of defrauding many other suspects in the same fashion.
Otanwa, Okopi and Ijiga, all natives of Benue State were arrested by the IRT in Nasarawa State for carrying out several robberies.
A source stated that the gang robbed a popular pharmacy and snatched a Toyota Sienna in Yanyan, Nasarawa State.
Otanwa, 26, a resident of New Yanyan area of Nasarawa, said he was an engineer with a company that got contract in Abuja until he was sacked.
According to him, the company he worked with lost all its contracts when the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan came to power.
He said, “I was married but I could not even provide for my family until I met someone called IG. I told him about my problems and he gave me some money. After a while, he introduced me to three other friends of his – Oteh, Sunday and Monday Ijiga. He showed us a pharmacy and said we should rob it. On our way, we saw a Toyota Sienna. IG and Oteh had guns on them and they snatched it from its owner. After we sold off the car, I was given N5,000.”
Ijiga, 27, in his statement said he joined the gang in May 2016 when he searched for a job in vain. According to him, the last operation was his third with the gang.
Meanwhile, a retired soldier-turned car dealer, 39-year-old Salisu Bello, was also arrested for stealing cars. – Culled from Punch.
