…As ‘angels-on-assignment’ arrest gang on return from operation
By Ngozi Uwujare
Fourteen-year-old Solomon Helpme, who claimed to be a JSS3 student, is now experiencing the pain and regret that come to any one that wilfully desecrates the Lord’s day.
Helpme allegedly did the ignoble thing of breaking into the homes of people in a community in Nembe, Bayelsa State, every Sunday while the residents were in church prayizng to the Almighty God. He would clean out all the valuable items found the victims’ homes.
Apparently pained by the loss of their property while they were in church, the affected families raised the voice of lamentation that thundered on the celestial gates, and prompted Heaven to send angels on assignment in the form of vigilant policemen, who laid aa dragnet. Helpme walked into it and was arrested by the operatives of the Serious Crimes Unit of the Bayelsa State Police Command.
In a chat with Sunday Sun at the headquarters of the command in Yenagoa, Helpme said: “I attended FAFO secondary school. I am JSS3. I was initiated into Icelander secret confraternity. I have been robbing victims on Sunday mornings after they have gone to church. I would burgle their homes with other members of my gang.”
His criminal exploits made him a thorn in the flesh of people in the community.
The Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Asuguo Amba, told Sunday Sun that Helpme had a three-man gang that had for sometime terrorised the community. He said the other members of the gang, Daniel Oweitugo, 23, and Preye Wilson, 21, specialised in robbing passengers on the Nembe creek. More than that, they were expert at stealing the outboard engine of boats tethered moored by the river bank. They also raped female passengers being conveyed in boats in the area.
Helpme who hails from Epie in Yenagoa Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, further said: “My mother is dead while my father is alive. I always keep a gun which we use for operation. I was arrested on May 23, 2017, after a robbery in Akenfa I community.”
His accomplice, Daniel Oweitugo corroborated what he said, added that he had engaged in sea piracy on the Nembe creeks, during which members of the gang robbed and raped female passengers.
Amba said that the suspect would soon charged to court.