Female keke armed robbers nabbed in Akwa Ibom

By Kazeem Ibrahym

Two female armed robbers who specialise in looting shops, boutiques, supermarkets and restaurants have been nabbed.

The notorious gang which has been terrorising pedestrians and residents of Uyo, the Akwa Ibom Capital, using keke to operate was last Thursday apprehended by some residents of  Ekpo Obot Street who gave them a hot pursuit after they had stolen from a boutique at No. 15 Ekpo Obot Street.
Narrating her ordeal, the Boutique sales girl, Imaobong Isaiah exclaimed: “See me o-o-o! The two girls entered my shop on a pretence to buy from me but after picking all the costly female hand bags, shoes, men jeans, hand watches and cloths worth forty-five thousand naira, instead of paying for what they have bought, they sent me to go and buy them drinks.
“So, I went to buy drinks for them at the nearby shop. As I returned, I met them making calls, and immediately their operational Keke man who was on standby to pick them came and they dashed inside the Keke with all my cloths without paying. So, I told them to give me my cloths, they refused.
“So, I started shouting, help! Thief! Thief! But the Keke man had already moved. As God would like it, luck ran out on them, the people around and people using cars pursued them and caught them.”
Questioning the two suspects, Grace Ekpo and Mfon Daniel from Itiam Ikot Ebia, Uyo Local Government, they confessed to the crime; saying apart from looting from shops, they have been involved in all kinds of robberies in the State and begged the people not to kill them.
They said: “When we enter peoples’ shops, we will pack the most costly ones; after which we will ask the attendant to get us water or send you on an errand. That will make us run away with the goods without paying for it. We rob women in Keke, we pick recharge card bags and anything that would fetch us quick money.’’
The gang was however saved from the angry mob when men of the Police Force arrived the scene, and whisked them away to the Police Station along Wellington Bassey Way, Uyo.
An eyewitness told this reporter that the gang had earlier also stolen clothes from another boutique on the same street, including hand bags full with recharge cards and cash of about fifty thousands of naira.
Police Public Relations Officer Cordelia Nwawe could not be reached to comment on the development.
Culled from The Nation