It was the end of the road for three members of a robbery gang who were said to specialize in changing the engine and chassis numbers of stolen vehicles as they have been arrested by men of the Delta State Police Command, the command announced on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.
The state police command, which announced the development on its X handle, added that twelve stolen vehicles were recovered from the men, who were also said to always deactivate the tracking devices inside vehicles.
The command gave their names as Dickson Omage, aged 47 years; Samson Ekwunwa, aged 40 years and Kanebi Michael, aged 39 years.
(Caption): The arrested robbery gang members, as posted by the state police command on Wednesday.
According to the report, following information from one man that his Toyota Corolla was stolen from where it was parked and that the said car was sighted along Eku/Warri road by Oha Junction, the DPO of Orerokpe Police Station mobilized patrol teams alongside members of Oha community vigilantes pursued the suspects to Army checkpoint and double crossed the car.
Consequently, Omage, who drove the vehicle, was arrested, the vehicle was recovered, and a master key which the suspects used to carry out their nefarious activities was also recovered.
According to the command, "Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect and his gang are notorious for stealing cars from where they were parked both in the daytime and at night. Further investigation and interrogation of the suspect led to the arrest of Ekwunwa and Michael."
During interrogation, it was discovered that the suspects specialized in removing old chassis numbers and engine numbers and replacing them with new ones before putting the vehicles for sale and equally demobilizing vehicles with car trackers while 12 vehicles, mostly of Toyota brand, were recovered from where they were kept in both Benin City and Warri.
The men are expected to be charged to court at the conclusion of the investigation into their nefarious activities.
Below are screenshots of some of the posts by the state police command on the matter: