A 21-year-old man, Chigozie Ogbonna of No. 6, Edun Street, llorin, who was arrested for allegedly snatching a car at gun point has been remanded at the Federal Prison, Oke-Kura, llorin, Kwara State.

The order to remand the accused was made by an llorin Magistrate Court before which he was arraigned on a two-count charge of criminal conspiracy and armed robbery.

The accused said to have conspired with five others now at lai ge to accost a woman along Gaa-Akanbi Road, llorin and collected her Honda Element Jeep at gun point.

The victim, Mrs. Divine Eberechi Sunday of Gaa Akanbi Area, llorin, had lodged a complaint at 'A' Divisional Police Station, llorin that while she was taking her children to school at Pipeline Area llorin, with her Honda Element Jeep with registration No. ABUJA TJ 303 ABC, she was waylayed by six armed robbers.

She stated that the suspected robbers who were on two motorcycles, armed with short guns, immediately snatched the vehicle from her. "I and my children were held hostage inside the vehicle and we were taken away to llorin/Ogbomosho old road where they dropped us along a bush."

The suspected armed robbers were said to have made away with the vehicle valued N2.2 million and a Nokia X3 GSM handset valued N16,000.

Meanwhile, on June 6 one of the suspected armed robbers called the victim's husband, Eberechi Sunday with GSM phone number 07087671694 to demand for a ransom of N400,000 for the release of his wife stolen vehicle. They also followed it up with text messages where they threatened to deal with the victim's family if they fail to meet up with their demand.

Luck however ran out of the accused when the victim played along with the suspects on the advice of the Police as he agreed to pay N250,000 to the First bank account number 3954941673 of one Evurulobi Desmond Iheanyi of Aba in Abia State.

According to the Police First Information Report (FIR) on the matter, after all the necessary investigation by the Special Anti-Robber Squad (SARS) operatives, llorin, the sum of N 100,000 was paid to the said account by the victim on June 15.

The FIR added that in the process of cashing the money the owner of the account and the accused were arrested in Aba, while the stolen vehicle was also later recovered where it was abandoned in Oyo town, Oyo state.

The FIR stated further that investigation conducted has indeed revealed that the owner of the bank account was found to be innocent of the crime, he was deceived to allow the use of his account by the accused without any knowledge of the crime.

It was found out also that the accused, who resides in llorin is the perpetrator of the crime with others at large, the GSM handset he has been using to send text messages to the victim was recovered from him and all the intimidating text messages are still found intact.

The alleged offences contravene Sections 97 of Penal Code and 1(2) of Robbery and Fire Arm (Special Provision) Act Cap 398, Law of Federation of Nigeria, 1990.

The prosecutor, Sergeant Matthew Ologbonsaye, objected to the bail of the accused and urged the court to remand him at the prison custody, pending the outcome of the ongoing investigation into the matter.

He submitted further that the alleged offences are not ordinarily bailable and that if the accused was admitted to bail might jump bail, since he has known the gravity of the offences.

Magistrate A.S. Olanikewu remanded that accused at the Federal Prison, Oke-Kura, llorin and adjourned the case till July 17, 2012 for further mention.

Culled from The Herald Newspaper