MICHAEL AKINOLA
Four suspected armed robbers, Blessing Okon, 20, Gabriel Japheth, 26, Osha Phenus, 23, and Gbenga Timothy, 22, have landed in trouble in Ondo State for allegedly killing their colleague, Shahabi Jabi, while sharing their loot.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that Police operatives from the Ondo State Command have arrested the suspects and detained them over the killing of their colleague, Jabi, during the sharing of their loot.
They are now facing charge for murder under the Criminal law of the State, which attracts several years of imprisonment or life imprisonment.
According to the Police, the suspects had on 28th October, 2023, macheted one of their gang members, Shahabi Jabi, to death over their formula for sharing stolen funds.
The suspects were arrested and paraded at the Police Headquarters in Akure, Ondo State, where they made confessional statements why they killed him.
One of the suspects, Okon, in his confessional statement, said the deceased defrauded them by giving them N50,000 out of the N200,000 robbery loot.
According to him, Japheth, who was infuriated by the display of greed by Jabi, macheted the deceased to death for keeping N150,000 to himself.
He said: “We were the ones who killed the man. But my friends accused me of telling the Police the truth—that we killed him”.
“It was ‘Black’ Japheth, who cut him with a cutlass. All of us, including the deceased, used to rob. After our last operation, we realised N200,000, but he decided to give the three of us N50,000 instead of sharing it equally.”
Japheth, however, said: “I wasn’t the one that cut the man. I was only implicated because I followed them to the scene.
It was after others were arrested that I was mentioned to be part of those that killed him.”
This was confirmed by the Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Asabi, who stated:
“On October 28, the Police informed us about an attack, that one Shahabi Jadi, ‘m’ was macheted to death along Ehinowo camp via Ondo town.
Upon receipt of the information, the Police, through intelligence gathering, arrested one Blessing Okon, ‘m’, 20. During interrogation, the young man gave viable information that led to the arrest of the suspects.”
“The suspect further stated that the deceased was a member of their robbery squad, but they had a scuffle when he cheated them and refused to give them their share of the proceeds.”
The Police boss, Asabi, further stated that the other suspected criminals were arrested and detained for investigation and they will soon be arraigned in Court for murder after the conclusion of investigations by the Police.