CRIME Perfume exposes robbery suspect

A23-year-old man, Eziaha Joshua, from Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State, has confessed that he and other members of his gang robbed a filling station at Obehie in Ukwa West Local Government Area and took away N86,000 being the sales for the day.

He said he got N35,000 as the leader of the operation, while the rider that took them there got N18,000, and the other suspect now at large got N27,000.

Narrating how they carried out the operation, Joshua said his friend, whom he identified simply as Onyempa, mooted the idea of robbing the filling station.

“He told me that he had a short gun and a knife which we could use to disarm the workers and rob them. He then asked me to arrange for a bike that would take us there. I quickly contacted a commercial bike operator who I knew very well. I rehearsed the operation with him and he agreed to take us there. When we got there at about 8pm, as suggested by the link person, he said he would not go to the filling station with us because the manager and some of the attendants knew him. So he parked the bike and waited at a flower hedge,” he said.

Joshua said they succeeded in robbing the place and leaving without a trace.

However, he said luck ran out of them when the manager reported the matter to the police and described the smell of the perfume he wore that day, saying: “It was the same perfume that exposed me because the police arrested me based on the smell of the perfume on me as described by the manager.

He said it was not the first robbery operation he had carried out but promised to repent and enroll in a Bible school and train as a pastor if he was granted pardon.

The rider, who gave his name as Chibuike Onyema, said he was a software engineer but had to be involved in the operation because it sounded convincing and attractive even when he was told the nature of the operation.

While parading the suspects, the Abia State Commissioner of Police, Leye Oyebade, said the gang was arrested following a tip off after they robbed the filling station.

“They were arrested by operatives of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad attached to Obehie Division. This was a follow up to the arrest of one Eziaha Joshua, 23, of Umuowa Ikpoku, Ukwa West and a member of the threeman gang. The duo who are members of a three-man gang confessed to have robbed one Ezeudu Chinasa of Benvick Filling Station of her Itel phone valued at N180,000, one wrist watch and a bag containing one Holy Bible,” the CP said.