Peace might just have been restored among the famous bike riders (Okada) as the Notorious bike snatcher identified by the police as Sani who has tormented and killed most of their colleagues and made away with their bikes have been apprehended.
There had been an uneasy calm in Makurdi town for the past
two months with registered commercial motorcycle riders
protesting the brutal killing of some of their colleagues by yet-to-
be identified gunmen.
The motorcycle riders, popularly referred to as ‘Okada’
operators, blocked major roundabouts and access roads within
the state capital with their bikes bearing green leaves and heavy
objects, preventing vehicles from plying notable routes.
It would be recalled that in two weeks, four commercial
motorcyclists lost their lives to the assassins who also made
away with their motorcycles.
However, with the apprehension of Sani during the week, the
police said they would eradicate the killer-bike snatchers
syndicate.
The Benue State Commissioner of Police, Dibal Yakadi, who
paraded the suspects among 15 others for committing various
crimes in different parts of the state, said the command was
determined to deal decisively with criminal elements in the
state.
Represented by Moses Yamu, the command’s public relations
officer (PPRO), he said that luck ran out of the suspected bike
snatcher when security operatives on patrol around Lobi
Quarters, in Makurdi, noticed an unusual struggle among three
people over a motorcycle and went to find out what was the
problem.
Yamu said that on sighting the police, two persons took to their
heels while the other, who turned out to be the rightful owner of
the motorcycle, was discovered bleeding profusely from a
gunshot on one of his hands.
The policemen went after the suspects and apprehended Sani,
he added.
The spokesman said the police were on the trail of Sani’s
accomplice and those whom investigations have suggested
were part of the notorious deadly syndicate, while the arrested
suspect would soon be charged to court.
Speaking to newsmen, however, Sani denied his involvement in
the alleged crime, saying that he was on his way home after
spending the night at his uncle’s place in Maddibo, Wadata
suburb of the town, a place near the spot of the incident, when
the police accosted him for reasons yet unknown to him.
He said: “I closed from work about 9.00.p.m. and went to my
uncle’s house in Maddibo. When I realised that it was late for
me to return to my home in another part of the town, I decided
to sleep there. I woke up in the morning and was returning to
my house when the police arrested me on the road at Maddibo.
I’m innocent because I don’t know what they are talking about.”
But, the victim, Benjamin Sokpo, identified Sani as, “the armed
robber who shot me on the hand,” adding that he picked the
suspect from an area of the town known as Zamar, to Lobi
Quarters, around 9.00p.m. last Friday only to get the cruel
surprise of his life.
Sokpo said: “I took the passenger (Sani) from Zamar to Lobi
Quarters at 9.00p.m. But, unknown to me, the passenger had
collaborated with a friend who was waiting at the point. When
we got there, he shot me on the hand while his friend tried to
collect my bike.
“We started struggling and it was at that point that the police
suddenly came and helped me. The police arrested Sani but his
friend ran away.”
Indeed, Sokpo was fortunate, unlike some of his colleagues who
were mercilessly hacked to their early graves.
The case of late James Chambe stands as the most recent and
happened at the High Level area in Makurdi.
Police said that the perpetrator, who might have posed as a passenger, could have cajoled the victim to the quiet area along Bauchi Crescent at High Level about 3 a.m. before shooting him and taking away his motorcycle.
The police command had consistently warned Okada operators to desist from doing their business at odd hours. Chairman of Makurdi branch of the Benue State Motorcycle Riders Association (BEMOA), Austin Akaa, has identified James Chambe as his group’s member.
Akaa said that the victim had conveyed a criminal he probably thought was a passenger to Bauchi Crescent at the High Level around 3 a.m. where he was shot and his motorcycle taken. He urged the state government to revert to the policy of the
immediate past administration in the state which allowed commercial motorcyclists to ply their trade only between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily, appealing to his colleagues to shun operating at odd hours.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued by Godwin Akor, the Senior Special Assistant on Media to Governor Samuel Ortom, in Makurdi, expressed the hope that the syndicate would soon be broken.
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