Police hold 3 over murder of Nasarawa philanthropist

When suspected robbers felled Alhaji Abubakar Wakama, a philanthropist, Lafia, the capital of Nasarawa State literally burnt. The police responded and said they would arrest the killers. A few weeks after, they made good their promise and arrested three of those who did the job. How did the police do it?

Lafia, the capital city of Nasarawa State, went up in flames recently when a prominent citizen of the state was allegedly gunned down by suspected robbers. Alhaji Abubakar Wakawa reportedly met his untimely death while on his way to honour an appointment around Aso Road in Mararaba, in the state capital.
Once the news of the killing of Alhaji Wakawa got to the hearing of the people in Lafia metropolis, many of them flayed the killing of the renowned philanthropist in his prime.
A lot of Nasarawa indigenes had called on the police authorities in the state to fish out Wakawa’s killers. At the same period, about 12 suspected cult members were also arrested by men of the command for their activities.
The Commissioner of Police, Abayomi Akeremale, had assured the government and people of the state that it would not be long before the perpetrators of the dastardly act were apprehended and brought to justice.
True to the words of the police boss, three suspected robbers, said to be the ones behind the death of Wakawa were arrested recently. The police said that they went after the robbers when the gang went for another operation.
According to the state’s Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Cornelius Ocholi, the Nasarawa Police Command received a distress call from members of the public from Mararaba area that suspected robbers were operating along New Nyanya and Masaka areas of the metropolis. It was reported that the robbers fled the scene before the arrival of law enforcement agents.
Akeremale reportedly ordered a 24 hour surveillance of the metropolis ostensibly to apprehend the robbers terrorizing the state. The dispatched police teams soon commenced surveillance of black spots in the metropolis.
That fateful Saturday, the police team trailed the suspected robbers to their hideout at Aso area of Lafia. The robbers were met in their den. Upon sighting the law enforcement agents, the robbers opened fire and engaged them in a fierce gun duel.
During the gun battle, the suspected leader of the robbery gang and three other members were arrested and taken to custody. At the end of the siege on the robbers’ hideout, police were able to recover a Hyundai saloon car with registration No. LAGOS BDG 878 AC, a laptop and a flat screen television set. One K2 riffle with four rounds of live ammunition, two locally-made revolvers, cutlasses and an iron cutter were also found in possession of the robbers.
Parading the suspects in Lafia, Akeremale, represented by Ocholi, claimed that investigations are still ongoing and that they would be charged to court upon completion. Speaking with newsmen, one of the suspects told reporters that losing his father at early age made him go into the crime.
He claimed that he was lured into the crime by the fallen gang leader, who he claimed, did not state categorically to him what he was taking him to do on the appointed day. “I only joined the group recently when the leader asked that we go to work together. He did not tell me what manner of work, but because I needed money, I had to follow him.
I never knew he was an armed robber until police came for us,” the suspect said. But debunking the suspect’s claim, Ocholi told reporters that the gang was behind the gruesome murder of Wakawa and it is the same gang that had been terrorising the state’s capital in the last couple of months.
“The CP had given directive to the effect that the recent new waves of crime must be put to rest without letting it spread to other parts of the state. So, when Alhaji Wakawa was killed, the CP ordered a total crack down on the perpetrators of the act.
Somehow, we raided the hideouts of the robbers and they engaged us in a fierce gun duel. In the process, their leader was killed and we arrested these three people,” Ocholi said.