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Tag: Geoffrey Ogbonna

  • Police confirm murder of Ugochukwu Mbadi, arrest of brother’s ex-wife

    The Police in Abia on Sunday confirmed the murder of a young man, Ugochukwu Mbadi by hired killers in Aba, the commercial hub of the state.

    The Police Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the state command, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna, also told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Aba that one Divine Ubasinachi, the ex-wife of Mbadi’s younger brother had been arrested for alleged complicity in the murder.

    Ogbonna said that Ubasinachi was arrested as a principal suspect in the murder because she had threatened to make the Mbadi family to cry before the murder took place.

    He said that the deceased was killed on Saturday evening in a beer palour located at No. 8 Uwakwe street.

    According to him, the deceased was shot dead in the bar owned by one Amarachi Chikezie.

    The police PRO also said that the deceased’s mother and father living at No. 9 Medical Drive in Njoku road off Ukaegbu road in Aba are all alive.

    He said that the suspect had been arrested and taken into custody.

    Read Also: Police confirm two Delta suspected robbers dead

    He added that the matter had been transferred to the state CID for further investigation.

    Ogbonna said that the deceased’s body had been removed from the crime scene and kept in an undisclosed location.

    Earlier, a source who pleaded not to have his or her name in print, told NAN that the murder, which created panic in the area, reminded residents of recent cult clashes in the area.

    The source also said that Ugochukwu was about to wed and had gone to let his people into his plans before his killers shot him dead.

    NAN

     

  • Gunmen attack warehouse, kill policeman in Aba

    A group of yet-to-be identified gunmen who attacked one of the warehouses in Aba, the commercial nerve of Abia State have reportedly killed one of the police officers attached to Aba Command of the Nigeria Police Force.

    The police officer according to close sources at the Aba Area Command is known among his colleagues as Nma Agha (War Sword).

    The Nation learnt that before the incident, the gunmen had gone to a warehouse located at Clifford in Aba South Local Government Area of the state where they robbed and carted away huge sums of cash from the owners.

    Unconfirmed reports have it that the gunmen also shot a worker at the warehouse who was later rushed to a private hospital at East road not too far from the scene of incident where he is said receiving medical attention after bleeding profusely.

    There are fears amongst close associates that the warehouse staff may not survive the gunshot.

    It was learnt that the hoodlums had finished robbing the warehouse and were on their way when they upon sighting the police officer and his team who were said to have gone for another duty not too far from the scene of the incident, started shooting at them.

    Read Also: Osinbajo to meet Aba traders today

    It was learnt that the police team who were apparently taken by surprise could not respond to the shooting.

    They later discovered that one of their colleagues was hit by bullets from the hoodlums as they can barely do little to save his life.

    The Abia State Police Command’s spokesman, Geoffrey Ogbonna in a telephone chat confirmed the death of the police officer, adding that investigation into the matter had commenced.

    Ogbonna said that the police had launched manhunt on the hoodlums to make sure that they didn’t escape justice.

    Meanwhile, residents of Aba have expressed their fears over the continued attack on warehouse owners and security personnel in the state and Aba in particular by hoodlums, a worrisome incident which they said needed to be checked before it goes out of hand.

    But security personnel who pleaded not to be mentioned told our reporter that events as such were expected at “this electioneering period.”

    According the officer, the hoodlums especially those working for politicians would take all manner of risk to get cash to buy weapon and when they couldn’t, they will attack any armed bearing security personnel to collect the person’s weapons with the aim of using such to perpetuate their evil acts for their masters.

    The personnel added that they were equally working to ensure that the state isn’t conducive for the hoodlums to operate.

  • Mob burns suspected robber to death in Aba

    An angry mob lynched and burnt to death a suspected armed robber who was among a gang of seven that invaded Eziama area in Aba on Monday.

    Spokesman for Abia State Police Command, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna, confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

    NAN learnt that the incident occurred at Uche Street in Eziama, Aba North LGA in the early hours of Monday.

    “We got the information this morning that a gang of seven armed robbers attacked the residents of Eziama, Aba and robbed them of their household valuables which included televisions, palmtops, mobile phones and other properties.’’

    Read Also: Robbers kill policeman in Ekiti

    Ogbonna said that the police had launched an investigation to discover both the identity of the suspect and those who killed him instead of turning him over to the police.

    “The hoodlums, armed with machetes and locally made guns, left after they thought that they had succeeded.

    “But luck ran against one of them who was caught by the irate mob and they burnt him to death.

    “We are nosing around to find out the identity of the burnt suspect because when things like this happen, people will be skeptical to talk to the police,” he said.

    Ogbonna warned people not to take laws into their hands in any circumstance but to report any matter to the police for proper resolution.

    “If they had caught him and handed him over to the police, we would have extracted some helpful information from him that could lead to the arrest of other gang members.

    “But now that they have killed him, it has become more difficult,” the police Spokesman said.

    He said that some of the valuables the robbers forcefully took from their owners at gun point had been recovered.

     

  • Police arrest car-snatching syndicate

    The Abia State Command of the Nigeria Police Force on Monday announced that its personnel attached to Umuopara Police Station in Umuahia North Local Government Area of the state on an intensive stop and search operation has arrested an armed robbery and car snatching gang.

    This was disclosed by the command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna in a statement released to journalists on behalf of the state commissioner of Police, Mr. Chris Ezike.

    Ogbonna in the release gave names of the four-man gang members as Alegu Anaeto ‘m’ of Ezea, Ebonyi State, 22yrs, Daniel Omeh ‘m’ of Mgbo, Ohaukwu LGA Ebonyi State, 25yrs, Peter Onuameme ‘m’ of Obowo Imo State, 38yrs and iv. Emeka Ibeh ‘m’ of Obokwu Obizi Ezinihitte Mbaise Imo State, 48yrs.

    The police personnel was also said to have recovered a Toyota Sienna SUV with Registration number HM 67 EKY, which they allegedly snatched on gunpoint from its owner, one Iwuchukwu Prince Chimuanya of No. 24 Amaigbo Road, Port Harcourt in Rivers State.

    The suspects were said to have also made away with cash sum of hisN25,000.00, Permanent Voters’ Card, original Driver’s License and other valuables of the victim.

    According to Ogbonna the Umuopara officers intercepted Alegu Anaeto with the vehicle and when he was questioned, he could not give proper account of the vehicle.

    Anaeto was later transferred to the Command’s Anti-Kidnapping Unit where he made confessional statements that led to the arrest of his cohorts and revelations of more of their escapades.

    Read Also: Court restrains EFCC, Police from arresting Fani-Kayode, Odumakin

    It was learnt that the Commissioner of Police has directed the immediate transfer of the suspects to Rivers Command, where the matter was originally reported.

    Ogbonna said that arrest of the suspects and recovery of the SUV was because of the determination of the Police Commissioner to purge Abia of crime and criminality which was why he (Ezike) created tactical operational units which include Anti-Kidnapping Unit, Monitoring Unit and Anti-Cultism, stressing that the units since their creation have made significant and remarkable marks in investigations and crime fighting in the State.

  • ‘No Chinese with human heads in our custody’

    Abia State Police Command has debunked online publication making rounds which claimed that some  Chinese workers were allegedly caught with 15 human heads in the state.
    The State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Chris Ezike through a release issued by the Command’s spokesman, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna bemoaned the publisher of the report which he said never occurred in the state.
    According to Ezike, the video has been subjected to intelligent scrutiny and was found to be of no substance and  cautioned the populace against the growing tendency of using online publications to propagate unfounded news and hate speech that are capable of undermining the peace and tranquility of the state.
    He said that Abia hosts lots of Chinese who engage in various commercial and economic activities, adding that such unfounded allegation could undermine their security and contributions to the economic activities/development in the state.

    Read Also: Four human heads discovered in Ebonyi

    The Commissioner while assuring the Chinese of protection of their lives and properties, promised that those involved in the production and circulation of the fake viral video would be fished out and prosecuted.
    On the preparation of the command to ensure a crime free Christmas and new year celebration, Mr. Ezike said that though no society is crime free, he however stated that the command was well prepared to tackle challenges and vices associated with Christmas and new year celebrations.
     He called on parents to advised their children and wards to be law abiding adding that law remains respecter of no person and that even a juvenile could be arrested and tried for minor crimes and offences.

  • Man drowns during friend’s birthday party in Aba

    A 20-year-old man, simply identified as Chidiebere David, drowned on Thursday night in the swimming pool of a new but popular hotel on Margret Avenue, GRA, Aba in Abia.

    The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Abia, Mr Geoffrey Ogbonna, confirmed the incident on Friday.

    “The man is about 20 years old. His name is Chidiebere David. He accompanied his friends to a birthday party in the hotel and got drowned there. That was exactly what happened,’’ he said.

    Ogbonna however did not say if the police was foreclosing further investigations into the matter.

    Read Also: Boy 16, ‘steals’ woman’s bag, phone

    The deceased went with his friends who were over 16 in number to the hotel to celebrate the birthday of one of them.

    Chidiebere who hailed from Imo died at the pool with no one realizing that he had drowned until sometimes later.

    When the deceased colleagues saw his body inside the pool and made frantic efforts to save him, they discovered that he had died.

    The relatives of the young man were said to have later arrived at the scene, taken his body and deposited at a morgue close to the hotel.

    An anonymous source within the hotel said that the friends of the deceased were arrested and taken into custody same night by policemen from Aba Area Command.

    NAN

  • 20-year-old man reportedly die after substance inducement

    A young man in his late twenties whose name was yet-to-be ascertained has reportedly died after allegedly inducing self with substance suspected to be Tramadol.

    Our reporter reports that the young man who collapsed and died in front of a lock-up located at St. Michael’s road by Mosque, Aba Abia State was said to have gone to a drug spot Milverton Street by Asa road.

    It was learnt that the situation forced many to avoid opening their shops for fear of being arrested by the police.

    An eyewitness who gave his as Chidi said “we came here in the morning only to meet the corpse of the man as he was lying in front of a shop.

    Read Also: Youths and substance abuse

    “The shop owners refused to open shop for fear of being arrested by the police.

    “People who know him said that the guy went to Milverton to take substance suspected to be Tramadol.

    “According to them, the guy may have taken in excess the substance which resulted to his collapse and his eventual death.”

    Efforts to reach the Abia State police public relations officer, Geoffrey Ogbonna for comments were fruitless.

  • Gunmen kill man one month to his wedding in Abia

    Residents of Federal Housing Estate and the adjoining Emelogu Road in Ogbor Hill axis of Aba, Abia State have reportedly been thrown into mourning as yet-to-be identified gunmen storm the area and shot dead a commercial tricycle operator whose identity is yet to be known.

    Our reporter was told that the gunmen numbering about four had accosted the tricycle operator whose name was later identified as Kalu, an indigene of Abiriba, in Ohafia Local Government of the state and demanded the keys to his Keke which sources suspected would be used by the hoodlums to perpetuate evil as that has been their style of beating prying eyes of security agencies.

    The commercial tricycle operator, who was said to be living in a near Emelogu Road, was reported to have refused parting with the keys to his keke which forced the hoodlums to shoot him.

    The victim was said to have died instantly because he was shot from a close range.

    The men of the underworld was said to have made away with the tricycle, leaving the keke operator in the pool of his own blood.

    A source hinted that the commercial tricycle operator was heading towards Ngwa Road from Ogbor Hill when on getting close to the Orji Uzor Kalu Bridge, the hoodlums accosted him.

    Read Also: ‘Lunatic’ who killed Ekiti monarch arrested

    The source said the victim who was to get married to his heartthrob in less than one month’s time, initially thought the men were passengers who wanted to engage his services.

    According to him, “It was when they demanded for his keke’s key that he knew they were armed robbers. The keke operator resisted them, the hoodlums shot him severally and he died instantly

    “From what we have been able to gather, these hoodlums do park their car in a nearby bush, come out on the road, and snatch a tricycle from its owner to go after their victim and to beat security operatives on the road.

    “When they succeed attacking or kidnapping their target, they will either snatch another keke to run or abandon that keke elsewhere to escape into the bush. Some people are in jail today because police traced their keke to have been used in a robbery operation without knowing that the owner of the keke doesn’t have any hand in the kidnapping or robbery.

    “Some keke owners are lucky to find their keke abandoned in a nearby bush where the hoodlums abandoned their keke before heading off with their victim. It is unfortunate that the innocent young man fail victim of these heartless individuals,” narrated.

    Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Abia State Police Command, Geoffrey Ogbonna could not be reached at the time of filing this report.

    However, a senior police officer who pleaded anonymity, confirmed the killing of Kalu and said that police was on the trail of the hoodlums.

  • Three die as soldiers clash with Police in Aba

    Three persons were on Friday reported dead in Aba, the commercial nerve of Abia State as personnel of the Nigerian Army attached to the Ngwa High School Forward Operation Base (Charlie Coy) and personnel of Mobile Police Force (PMF 55) unit in Osisioma Local Government Area of the State.

    While a yet to be confirmed report has it that a police officer’s hand was severed in the shootout, another report has it that two mobile policemen and a soldier died in the melee.

    It could be recalled that in 2015, soldiers from Ngwa High School FOB and policemen of PMF 55 clashed at the same Osisioma junction, leaving a policeman who was hit by a bullet during crossfire that lasted for about thirty minutes dead.

    While efforts to reach both police and army hierarchy in the state until the time of this report failed to yield fruits as the State Commissioner of Police and the spokesman of the Command, Michael Ogbizi and Geoffrey Ogbonna were yet to reply to a text message our correspondent sent to their phones.

    Sources who claimed to have witnessed the incident feared that incident which caused pandemonium at the major exit and entrance route into the commercial nerve of the state also wounded many passersby.

    According to one Chinyere Ikem, the incident forced many shop owners to quickly close for business while many petty traders along the Expressway abandoned their wares to scamper for safety as lorry load of mobile and regular policemen arrived the scene that is already charged with gunshots.

    Ikem said that while some passengers going to different parts of the country that were yet to board vehicles to their locations were trapped in the shootout, others coming into the country, used alternative routes to avoid being caught in the web of the crisis.

    “It happened like what we used to watch in American movies. It happened in a flash and before you know what is happening, trucks of army and police vans were everywhere.

    Read Also:Court grants bail to seven Jewish worshippers in Abia

    Police and army were shooting themselves face-to-face. From what we later learnt, two policemen and a soldier died in the gun duel. It is better seeing that being told. I don’t know what is happening at this Osisioma junction. Don’t forget that some time ago, police and army clashed here and shoot at each other leaving one policemen dead.

    “I saw some people running with blood stain and I guess that they were hit be stray bullets. Police and army leadership in the state should call themselves to order. They are sister agencies and I don’t think that it is in their own interest to be fighting among themselves when they are supposed to be working hand in hand with each other especially as the state Governor is doing his best in tackling insecurity in the state,” Ikem stated.

    While normalcy has since returned to the area at the time our reporter visited the scene, shop owners were yet to open for business as people in clusters recount their experience of the incident.

    However in a swift reaction, Abia State Government in a press release through the commissioner of information in the state, Chief John Okiyi said that the state received with sadness “disturbing reports of an unfortunate confrontation between a group of soldiers and police officers at the Osisioma area of Aba earlier today (Friday June 15).”

    Okiyi who said that the state government was working with heads of security to bring the situation under control also assured that investigation was ongoing to know the cause of the incident and to fish out those behind the incident.

    “We are working with the heads of the concerned security agencies in the state to ensure that the situation, which has been brought under control, does not repeat itself or escalate within the state.

    “Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has also directed full investigation of the circumstances that led to the breach of public peace with a view to preventing future occurrence of such armed confrontation that endanger the lives of innocent citizens and security agents working in the state.

    “While we are currently working with law enforcement agencies to review the immediate and remote cause of the incidence, members of the public are advised to go about their normal duties as the situation around the area has been pacified.

    “Those responsible for this breach of public peace will certainly be unraveled and punished according the law,” Okiyi added.

  • Hoodlums torch police station in Abia

    Hoodlums have attacked a police post in Ahiaukwu Olokoro, Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State, setting ablaze property worth millions of Naira.

    The invaders burnt an operational vehicle, a commercial tricycle and broke the windshield of a Volkswagen car parked within the police station, Southeast Report learnt.

    The situation, our reporter gathered, triggered fear among the residents who said activities of criminals have been on the increase in the area in recent times.

    Some of the residents who spoke anonymously said they were afraid, adding that if hoodlums could attack a police post and get away with it, their lives and property are not safe.

    The residents could not confirm whether anybody was killed in the incident, but they said important police documents may have been destroyed.

    Abia State Police Command spokesman, Geoffrey Ogbonna could not be reached at the time of this report, but a senior police officer at the command who confirmed the incident, said the police were on the trail of the suspects.

    According to the source, the police were working on intelligence gathered so far which they believe would aid them arrest the suspects.

    The source debunked reports that the hoodlums carted away arms and documents of the command, but confirmed that they facilitated the escape of two of the four suspected drug dealers and armed robbers earlier arrested by policemen attached to the police post.

    The source said the suspects were about to be transferred to Ubakala Divisional Police Headquarters before the hoodlums struck.

    The source vowed that the police would ensure that they tracked down the hoodlums involved in the invasion.