Prosper Israel, a former Department of State Services (DSS) official, and nine other people have been put on trial for allegedly robbing a billion van of millions of naira and killing the cashier.
The suspects were paraded by the police commissioner, Mrs. Jenet Agbede, at the police headquarters in Umuahia, the capital of Abia State, on Monday. She claimed that the suspects had N10,184,000 recovered from them.
She continued by saying that the suspects belonged to a 14-person gang that waylaid the vehicle on July 26, 2022, on the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, close to Ntigha Junction in the state’s Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area.
Other suspects include Adesoji Adeniyi, also known as “Soji,” Nnamdi Nwaosu, also known as “Prophet,” Nwachukwu Albert, also known as “White,” the first armorer, and Chinwendu Israel (Abia State).
The remaining individuals are Azubuike Amaefula, called “Zubby” (Abia State), Monday Samuel, aka “MD,” the 2nd Armourer, Felix Ajalaja (Ondo State), Moshood Opeyemi (Osun State), Matthew Christmas, aka Aluwa (Delta State), and Moshood Opeyemi (Osun State) (Delta State).
She said, “The suspects in their individual voluntary statements confessed belonging to a 14-man awful armed robbery gang with a specialty in bullion van attacks and that for about two months before the attack, the van had been under their surveillance.”
One General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) with 53 rounds of live ammunition and 13 AK47 rifles with 1,749 rounds of live ammunition, according to the police head, were among the further exhibits found with them.
They also had two homemade explosive dynamite devices, a cut-to-size double barrel pistol with five live rounds, 84 AK-47 magazines, a Mercedes small vehicle, and other items.