Twelve suspects of Nigerian origin, who robbed some bureau de change operators at Krake village, Seme Podge, in Republic of Benin, might get the death penalty.


The robbery suspects. Inset:Guidimey and Akpoyibo.

advertisement

The Controller General of police in Benin, Celestine Guidimey, who revealed this to PUNCH METRO said that some Beninese were killed during the robbery operation. "In my country, if anybody kills during or after a robbery operation, what he would get from the court.is the death penalty."

Guidimey was in Lagos State to receive the robbers from the Lagos State police command. Policemen in the state apprehended the robbers in Nigeria after the operation in Benin Republic.

He told PUNCH METRO that the Beninese police would conduct further investigation to get those who collaborated with the suspects in Benin and then charged them to court.

"Our investigations will not take more than a month. We know that there are some of our citizens that aided the successful robbery operation. We hope to get them and charge them alongside their Nigerian collaborators. Anybody we find not guilty among the suspect here will be allowed to go. After that, they will be punished according to their role in the crime. But we are confident that those who robbed and killed our people will get the death penalty," he said.

The police commissioner in Lagos State, Marvel Akpoyibo, said that the arrest and handing over of the suspected robbers showed that the police are the same everywhere. He added, "Lagos State policemen are not bothered that they are serving their punishment in Benin because that is where the crime took place," he said.

The gang that told PUNCH METRO last week that they found the trade too lucrative to abandon it, landed in police net shortly after the raid on the bureau de change in Benin Republic.

They were arrested by the police in Lagos State after they had safely slipped into Nigeria following a robbery operation in Benin Republic.

Akpoyibo had said he had ordered all the routes leading from Benin Republic to Lagos be sealed up upon hearing of the robbery. He said, "I also deployed a combined team of operatives from Police Mobile Force, Anti-Terrorist Squad and the Marine police to provide reinforcement and back up for the policemen in Seme and Badagry divisions.

"They abandoned their jeep with registration number Lagos VC 01 MUS and escaped into the forest. We immediately cordoned off the forest for three days between August 31 and September 1. At the end, we got these 8 suspects.

"In addition, four AK 47 rifles, 99 live ammunition, N504, 430, and 1, 673, 000 CFA suspected to have been stolen from victims during the robbery operation were recovered."

http://odili.net/news/source/2010/sep/24/816.html