Wife of Police officer arrested for ARMED ROBBERY

Imagine the Irony, When the wife of a crime fighter becomes the criminal.

The wife of a serving police officer, Mrs. Amechi Ofem, 44, and her younger brother, have been allegedly linked with an armed robbery gang. They were however recently arrested by law enforcement agents in Anambra State.

Ofem was said to have been administering treatment to the leader of the gang, Patrick Ogah, who had sustained bullet wounds during an encounter with the police in the city.

She was arrested in her residence in Onitsha by a team of policemen from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Lagos, three days after Easter Sunday. And her younger brother, Jude Eze, was nabbed in Ogbakogba in company with members of the gang at a hideout where they were receiving treatment.

But Ofem tearfully told CRIME DIGEST that she was innocent. She said, “I attended the School of Nursing at Oji in Enugu State. I was trained to administer immunisation and injections between 1998 and 1991.

“Later, I did a bit of petty trading before running a drug store in Onitsha. All my life, I have had nothing to do with robbers until I got a call from my brother (Eze) sometime in March. He told me that he needed me at Atani to treat a friend of his who had been involved in a car accident.

‘Although I didn’t know who this person was, I went to Atani. Ogah was wounded in his lower arm. During the treatment, which lasted three days, I dressed his wounds and gave him injections.

“The bullet was already out before I treated Ogah. I had no way of knowing that it was a gunshot wound. When I noticed that he had a broken bone in his lower arm, I advised him to go to the hospital. Eze told me he would take his friends to the hospital and I went back home to Onitsha.”

Ofem said she had hardly settled down to her daily routine of caring for her three children and running her drug store when she received another telephone call.

It was to inform her that she was needed at Ogbakogba, where her brother and his friends had gone to seek the services of a herbalist, who was also a bone setter.

She said, “After the broken bones were fixed, the herbalist asked my brother to invite the nurse who had been cared for his friend before he would set the sticks that would be used to support the broken arm. I got this call on a Saturday and told Eze that I couldn’t make it to Ogbakogba until after Easter.

“On Easter Monday, I finally left Onitsha for Ogbakogba. When I met Eze’s wounded friend, I applied Cicatrin powder to his wound, and gave him an injection and went back to Onitsha that same day. I was shocked when the following Wednesday, a SARS team from Lagos traced me to my shop at Fegge, Onitsha.

‘They told me that I had to lead them to a group of fleeing robbers with whom I had been in contact. Although I was horrified, I agreed to cooperate with them. We had to board a canoe from Onitsha to Ogbakogba on that day. I never suspected for once that Eze’s friends were robbers.”

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police Mr. Umaru Manko, confirmed the arrests. He said, “Ogah is the leader of a gang of four armed robbers who, though based in Onitsha, often operate in Lagos. Ogah had once lived in the Ajah area of Lagos. After he relocated home, he brought together this group and supervised all their robbery operations in the area.

“This group robbed four victims of their cars in Ajah. They were accosted by policemen from the Area K Command during their fifth operation. During an encounter with the police, Ogah was arrested alongside Bright Egwonwu and Onyebuchi; Ifedilichukwui. The last man, Uchenna Ejike, escaped. However, Ogah was shot during the exchange of fire with the police.

“Three locally-made pistols were recovered from the suspects and and some ammunition. The case was transferred to SARS from the Area K Command.”

CRIME DIGEST gathered that the SARS operatives later travelled to Onitsha with Ogah and Egwonwu in a determined effort to arrest Ejike and a receiver of stolen vehicles.

Ogah and Egwuonwu escaped in a Honda CRV hired for the purpose at Obosi, where an ambush was laid for the receiver. The receiver also escaped.

Manko said, “While their Officer-in-Charge, Superintendent Abba Kyari monitored the situation, SARS operatives launched a manhunt for the robbers, which lasted 12 days. It was this search that led the police to Ofem, who in turn led the way to the robbers’ hideout in their Ogbakogba camp.”

The only son of five children, Eze admitted that he had known that Ogah was a robber. He said he was compelled to help the criminal because of his kindness to him.

He said, “I met Ogah at Onitsha Prison; I had got into a fight with a neighbour and had badly wounded him. My father was livid and he had me arrested. I was charged to court and subsequently sentenced for attempted murder, while Ogah was serving a sentence for armed robbery.

“During my time in the prison, no member of my family came to see me. It was Ogah who took care of my meals during this period. When he learned that I could prepare charms, he was interested. After he got out, I started making charms to protect him and his gang during their operations.

‘I never accompanied them on any operation. So when Ogah came to me after he had escaped from the police at Obosi, I still couldn’t turn him down. Although he had received treatment elsewhere, I decided to call my sister Ofem to help. Ogah was really good to me when I was in prison. Because of this, I couldn’t abandon him.”