Thursday, August 16, 2012

Nigeria: Catholic Knight Fingered As Church Robbery Kingpin

A knight of the Catholic Church, who is a parishioner at St. Mary's Catholic church, Trans-Ekulu, Enugu has gone underground since he reportedly 'conscripted' from Lagos State three armed robbers who allegedly carried out a midnight operation inside the church.
 
Simply identified as "Sir Joseph" by the suspected robbers who were apprehended some hours after their "very successful" operation at God's house, the man who is said to be a strong member of the Knight of Saint Mulumba at the popular church in Enugu State decided to vanish into thin air, apparently for fear of being arrested by security forces.

Although the Enugu State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Ebere Amaraizu confirmed the incident, he declined further comments on the run-away knight for now. 
However, a reliable source in the police told our reporter that no matter how fast or hard "Sir Joseph" runs, the long arm of the law will surely catch up with him. 

"If he likes, let him go and live under the lagoon, the long arm of the law will certainly catch up with him," said the insider.

The three suspects, Efe Best, Nester Uvieghara and Ben Kalu, are currently helping detectives at the Enugu Police Command on all they know about the robbery that occurred midnight, July 8, 2012 at St. Mary's Catholic Church in the Trans-Ekulu area of Enugu.

The young men claimed that they had left their Lagos base on the invitation of one 'Sir Joseph', who they alleged, used to be their 'partner-in-crime' at the Wharf, Apapa, Lagos where they used to cannibalise and vandalise imported second-hand (tokunbo) vehicles. 

This was aside snatching cars violently from their owners, for decades before Joseph reportedly left Lagos and relocated to Enugu where he eventually became a knight.

By having the bravado to rob right inside God's own church, the robbers confessed, they had sinned greatly against God and come to the end of the road.

When our reporter visited St. Mary's Catholic Church, Trans-Ekulu, last Wednesday, August 8, 2012, the young assistant priest in the parish, said he was not competent to speak with journalists, although he admitted that the robbery really took place inside the church.

Saying that he was actually a victim of that particular robbery operation, the young priest who declined further comments on the incident, advised our reporter to come back in two weeks when the main parish priest would have come back from his trip outside the state.

He could not confirm whether a certain 'Sir Joseph' existed in the church or if the wife of the said Joseph is actually related to one of the priests in the church.

But, it was like an action-packed movie, as the three suspected robbers narrated to the detectives at the Criminal and Investigation Department (CID), of the Enugu State Police how their alleged former 'comrade-in-crime', Sir Joe reportedly smooth-talked them into coming down to Enugu to execute the operation.

The suspects said their sudden arrest at Ore, Ondo State after their rather 'lucky' robbery operation in Enugu, was like an act of God or a divine intervention.

According to the suspects, they were once professional vandals at the Apapa Sea Port (Wharf) in Lagos where they worked as labourers/off-loaders and also used the opportunity to steal vital parts from imported vehicles without luck running against them for several years. 

Now, the table was turned against them in view of the federal government's ports reform.

Recalling how they got entangled in the invasion of God's own 'holy altar', in the midnight of July 8, 2012 on the secret and ungodly invitation of one of the parishioners, the gang leader, Ben Kalu, remembered that the said Sir Joseph "used to be our gang member in Lagos. We used to steal cars and vandalize all the parts and sell them in a place called Coconut in Lagos and we have been with him for the past eight years before he relocated to Enugu and we haven't been in touch for sometime until he came to Lagos three weeks ago to invite us to Enugu to vandalize some cars."

However, they claimed ignorance of their host plotting a robbery operation which they would execute right inside a place of worship, an act that eventually caused their being apprehended by the police at far away Ore, Ondo State on their way back to Lagos.

Ben Kalu, a married man with one child, and native of Ohafia, Abia State, narrated, "One Sir Joseph invited me and my friends. We are staying at Lagos. We came into Enugu in morning bus on Sunday July 8. Sir Joseph was one of our co-workers in Lagos. We worked as maritime workers inside the ports where we offloaded tokunbo cars and containers from the ship. Sometimes we vandalized the cars and sold the parts."

According to Kalu, "Along the line, about three years ago when the federal government sold the ports to the private sector they employed their own workers and drove away all the former maritime workers. Then I began to look for an alternative means of livelihood. I went into vandalizaion of cars. When I see the one which I know is okay for me I vandalized it; I removed the vital parts which I sold to make money. I used the money I made from the sale to buy Okrika (second hand clothes) from Cotonou."

Kalu said they usually sold the vandalised automobile parts to their customers very early in the morning at the place called Coconut area of Lagos. 

"There are some people who will come very early in the morning between 5 and 5.30 am after we have returned from offloading ships at night to buy the parts. I was not alone in the business. We were more than 100 labourers doing the same thing. On our own part, we worked together in one group," he said.

He said as at this time in the operation, they hadn't actually started vandalising vehicles but that Sir Joe and his boys were already inside ransacking offices when they eventually saw church security men outside who gave two of them serious matchet cuts.

"When they heard my shout that security men had come, they jumped out. But before they came out, we had crossed the main road and entered into one small bush and hid there. When they came there, Joe said see, see, see. He gave us a yellow nylon bag and another black bag containing a laptop. We didn't know how much they collected from there because there was no chance to count the money there. And that one you cannot take it to the hotel because there will be people at the hotel. He just cut the money, put it in the nylon bag and put the rest inside the bag containing laptop and gave us."