Soldier Who Led Others To Hijack Fuel Truck Has Been Arrested....

The Oyo State Police Command on Friday paraded a soldier, Akpan Edet, and four others for hijacking a truck loaded with petrol along the Akobo-Iwo Road area of Ibadan with intent to sell the product on the black market.

The state Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Odude, said that Edet, 28, was arrested with Onyeka Joshua, 34, Ohonwen Raphael, 32, Ugo Monday, 31, and Ifeanyi Emmanuel, 37, on November 17, 2017. He added that the soldier was the leader of the robbery gang.



Odude said, “He was clad in full military camouflage for the operation, which was carried out with other accomplices around 11.30pm on the day he was arrested. They hijacked a truck loaded with 40,000 litres of fuel. They also abducted the driver and his motor boy and took them to Omi-Adio area of Ibadan before robbing them of their belongings.

“The truck was driven to the Akure-Ilesa road by other members of the gang. After an alarm was raised by members of the community who were attracted by the driver’s calls for help, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad swung into action and three other members of the gang were arrested while the truck was recovered.”

Edet told journalists that he was lured into the business by Joshua. He said that initially, he told Joshua that he did not want anything to do with his job.

“I later followed them to take part in the operation. I am a Corporal in the Nigerian Army serving in Ibadan,” he said.

Joshua said that a bureau de change operator introduced him to the crime of hijacking fuel trucks.

He said, “I have a shop where I sell building material. A friend who operates a bureau de change business in Sabo area of Ibadan told me that he had a brother that was into illegal oil business. He said his brother was planning to hijack a fuel tanker and that he needed a soldier to take part in it. I called Edet and asked him if he would like to be part of it and he agreed.

“We used Edet’s status as a soldier to arrest a driver with the loaded truck. We told him that he was being arrested because he had no way bill. We took him and his assistant away in a bus under the pretext that he was being taken to the military barracks for interrogation. Meanwhile, two members of our gang, Adamu and Tanko, had driven the truck to Ilesa. The driver raised the alarm when we told him to go. He demanded where the truck was, in the process, we were held and handed over to the police.”

from punch