Deputy Superintendent of Prisons in the Nigerian Prisons Service, Mr Collins Ugwu, has been arrested by the police in Enugu for an alleged involvement in armed robbery.
Ugwu, a native of Ezza in Ebonyi State, who resides in Abuja, where he works at the headquarters of the Nigeria Prisons Service, was nabbed in Enugu on June 26.
The senior prisons officer was arrested with suspected accomplices, Ifeanyi Ozor, a native of Enugu State who is also resident in Abuja; and Smart Osetu from Oguta in Imo State.
The Commissioner of Police, Enugu State, Mr. Mohammed Danmallam, disclosed, while parading the suspects, that apart from armed robbery, the prisons officer and his gang were also involved in conspiracy, malicious damage, stealing and ‘obtaining by tricks.’
The Enugu police chief revealed that Ugwu and his colleagues were apprehended after the police gathered intelligence information on their activities.
According to him, the gang stayed around the premises of commercial banks to monitor prospective victims who had come to withdraw money.
Danmallam said, “The suspects (Ugwu, Ozor and Osetu) belong to a syndicate that specialises in monitoring anyone that has gone to bank to make withdrawals and trail them to a point where they can smartly force the door or the windscreen (of the victims’ car) open with their instrument and steal the said amount.
“They are also part of a syndicate that buys goods from traders and generate fake payment alert to the owner of the goods without him knowing.
