Mob sets robbery suspects ablaze as police re-arrest escapee from Warri prison, foil cult initiation 

By EBENEZER ADUROKIYA, Warri

An angry mob has burnt to death a robbery suspect and inflicted a first degree burn on another during a robbery operation at Mccaiver Road, Warri, Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State.

This is just as operatives of the Delta Police Command of the Nigeria Police have re-arrested one Precious Abia Azubule, 23, who escaped from Warri Correctional Center during last year’s #EndSARS protest.

Azubule, who was re-arrested by police operatives while on patrol on March 9, has been subsequently arraigned on a two-count charge No. 46/c/2021 and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment.

The two robbery suspects set ablaze were simply identified as Idianmi, who was burnt to death and 25-year-old Ola Tuoyo, who sustained a first-degree burn and has been traced by the police to where he’s secretly receiving treatment for appropriate actions.

A statement by DSP Bright Edafe, the Ag. Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Delta State Command, confirmed that as soon as the police in A division, Warri, learnt of the incident, one of the suspects, Tuoyo, was traced to the hospital where he was receiving treatment for a first-degree burn.

He said the suspect confessed to being a member of the robbery syndicate that invaded McCaiver road that night and gave the name of the deceased mobbed to death as Idianmi.

Meanwhile, police operatives in Delta have foiled a cult initiation ceremony and arrested 31 cult suspects including a lady in cult-infested Sapele between 12th and 13th of March 2021.

Fifteen of them were arrested on March 12 by the Commander, State Anti-Cult unit (SACU) SP Igbaji Christopher who despatched SACU operatives to Sapele and raided a notorious cultist hideout in Oghara.

Raps of substance suspected to be cocaine were also allegedly recovered from them.

The other 15 cult suspects including the lady, who allegedly belong to Aye Confraternity, were arrested about midnight as they were allegedly warning up for an initiation ceremony to be held at Okpanam, Asaba.

Operatives of SACU, acting on a tip-off, reportedly invaded a nearby bush at Obogba village, Okpanam, the venue of the initiation and arrested the 15 male suspects and one female suspect, just as a Toyota Camry car was also recovered.

It was also gathered that on the afternoon of March 15, the Divisional Police Officer of ‘A’ Division, Warri CSP T.Y. Mahmud, while acting on intelligence gathered, recovered a serviceable G3 rifle with No. ET77645 with 15 rounds of live ammunition from behind an uncompleted building used as a worship centre at Warri/Sapele road by the garage opposite Wema Bank.

The arm and ammunition were suspected to have been hidden behind the building by men of the underworld in aid of their nefarious activities.

DSP Edafe, who confirmed the discovery and recovery of the arm and ammunition, said a manhunt for suspected owners to have hidden the rifle is ongoing for them to be arrested and brought to book. (Nigerian Tribune)