Dismissed army officer arrested for armed robbery

IGP Suleiman Abba
(Nigeria Police Force)

An army officer gone bad has been nabbed for armed robbery after his love for cocaine consumption led to his troubles.

A dismissed Lance Corporal in the Nigerian Army, Ugochukwu Williams, has been arrested for armed robbery alongside two members of his gang, Obinna Aku and Chibuzor Obeta.

The former army officer however narrated how his love for cocaine use ruined his life and career, leading him into crime.

Vanguard Newspaper reports that on March 16, 2015, Williams and Aku had robbed a man, stole his i-Phones, and a Blackberry and a Honda EOD vehicle at gun point.

Realising that the victim had only N1,000 on him, Williams, a father of one who hails from Enugu State, took the victim to a nearby bank to withdraw cash.

But when they were unable to withdraw any cash from the machine, the suspects took the man's vehicle to Akala area of Mushin where they dismantled it and sold it in spare parts to traders in Ladipo market.

But a few days later, the victim on his way to work around Ojuelegba when he identified one of the suspects who robbed him and he immediately alighted from the commercial bus, headed straight to where that suspect was standing, and raised alarm.

The police at Olosan Division were later invited and the suspect was arrested, while his accomplice, Obinna, was arrested two days later.

Confessing to the crime and other robberies, Williams said they had a revolver pistol with six rounds.

He also lamented his addiction to cocaine as the bane of his problems.

"I do buy a pinch of cocaine at Akala area in Mushin for N300 and the effects wears off within three seconds.

The pathetic aspect was that I spent my entire salary buying cocaine. The urge to get a pinch of the substance drove me to crime. I never had it in mind to go into robbery.

Now my addiction has ruined my life and career."