EBONYI
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Ebonyi Command has arrested six suspected electricity cable thieves in the state.
The Command also arrested a suspected car thief and recovered the car.
SP Chris Anyanwu, Spokesman of the Command while parading the suspects in Abakaliki on Thursday, said the five among the cable thieves were staff of the Ebonyi state Ministry of Power and Energy.
Anyanwu added that the arrest of the cable thieves were made possible by operatives of the personnel on Wednesday, Dec. 6.
“We got the information that some hoodlums were into cable vandalism and one of the information led us to the arrest of one Obinna Ugwu, a 30-years old man; an electrical parts dealer who received about 16mm Armoured Cable.
“However, he has shop at NO 7 Ogwu street, Abakaliki and he has admitted that the cables were supplied to him by the members of staff of the Ministry of Power and Energy in the state.
“When we executed a search warrant within his premises, we recovered a lot of these cables and some other electrical parts.
“Further investigation led to the arrest of the five staff of the ministry of power. They are the engineers and electricians working in the ministry.
“The five staff have also admitted that they supplies cables to the dealer. As they supplied, in the first, two rolls, he paid them N210, 000. The second one, he paid them N 98, 000 and N130, 000 in the third roll respectivly.
“The five suspects include, Osulor Chimaobi, an engineer in the ministry of power. The Second person is Eleyemi Oluwale, 37 years old, Ofoke Nnaemeka, a 30 years old-young man, Oreke Monday, 29 years and Bawara Onyekachi, 30 years. The have confessed and admitted that they committed the crime,” he added.
On the car theft, Anyanwu said that the stolen car is a Toyota camry, 2004 model and it has been recovered and would be given to the owner.
Our correspondent reports that the suspects are now in police custody.