By Ebiowei Lawal

Copyright tribuneonlineng

The Bayelsa State Command of the Nigerian Police Force paraded a suspect, George Idumangi, accused of killing a 42-year-old estate agent, Richard Ekpebu, in Yenagoa.

This achievement was attributed to valuable information provided by the local community and cooperation from sister security agencies in Lagos.

State Commissioner of Police Francis Idu stated that the reward system introduced by Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun played a key role in motivating the Operation Puff Adder team, led by CSP Chris Nwaogbo, to quickly apprehend the suspect.

During a press briefing following the parade of the suspect, the Police Commissioner explained that intelligence sharing between the police forces in Bayelsa and Lagos, as well as collaboration with other agencies such as the Nigerian Immigration Service, led to Idumangi’s arrest in Festac Town, Lagos. He was caught trying to obtain a passport to flee the country.

According to him, “The citizens of the state offered buoyant support to all our inquiries and efforts until he was arrested. If nothing is done, society will have us in contempt. Concerned by the public outcry, we moved on full shuttle through Bayelsa to Rivers to Delta and finally to Lagos to get him apprehended.”

Disclosing how Idumangi was tracked and arrested, he said: “Mr George swapped his phone, the phone was re-allocated to a lady that works in the bank, who innocently procured the phone from a phone swap shop in Computer Village, Ikeja.

“We put instruments to mobilise police in Lagos and links to Mr George was established through the phone she bought from the shop. There were hiccups at the estate where he was staying because it was a gated estate.

“However, with the professional conduct of team that left here with the married efforts of the police in Lagos using their expertise with Immigration to fast-track the investigation, he was apprehended.

“He was hiding with his squad and it was difficult to access them, until we were able to get them through the person that dry clean clothes for them. Through the dry cleaner, we were able to link up Mr George who tried to conceal his crime but the good people of Bayelsa helped us to format the arrest.

“I want to thank people in sensitive corridors who helped us with the transaction pattern and with the amount of money he collected.”

He said it was difficult for the people who paid the money because the first suspicion was on them adding that “they were brought for review but an honest citizen will always be an honest citizen.

“They cooperated from the beginning to the end. I want to use this opportunity to thank the people of Bayelsa, the Government and my Inspector General of Police, who always gives us the courage and the technical point to ensure that where the legs are getting dull, he will offer us a life line from the technical unit of the police.”

He further disclosed that Mr Idumangi, acted with his girlfriend, adding that some ammunitions were recovered from two persons, whom he disclosed had relocated to the state to take refuge and to probably cause trouble.

He said: “We are also parading the arms and ammunition that got into Bayelsa. Citizens also alerted us because of the suspicion of those characters within the domain. The ammunitions are not normal ammunitions. If you are not in the military, you won’t understand the velocity of those ammunitions.

“Somebody ran away from the heat of battle in the North West and he wanted to associate himself within this environment and luckily, watchful Bayelsans especially Yenagoa citizens who trusted that we will respond to the distress call informed us and the suspect was taken into custody after a search was conducted on him.

“I want to state clearly that Yenagoa has enveloped into peace and people want to live peacefully here and I will continue to say that insecurity in the Niger Delta is like a tiger having its head in Bayelsa. And whenever you see any other thing in the South South, it is like a tail of the tiger.

“In the Niger Delta domain, we should bruise the head of the tiger to de accelerate insecurity in this zone.What we have done here is that we have been able to use our technical aid to geofence this corridor to be able to map out places of concern and use the corridors to defile people from establishing camps within this place.

“I want t assure you that Bayelsa State will remain peaceful and my brothers in other security agencies are always available and ready to partner with me to deal with situations that will helps us to hold down the head of the tiger in this place.

“Our duty is to keep criminals people far away from where people reside. Be rest assured that the Governor has given us approvals to deal with crime and criminality decisively in this state.”

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