Police Sergeant’s Son Escaped Death By The Whiskers In A Failed Armed Robbery Attack In Aba

A Son of a late retired Police Sergeant would have his father’s colleagues from the Aba Area Command of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to thank, for rescuing him from a mob that nearly lynched him after a failed robbery operation in one of the fuel stations in Aba, the commercial nerve of the state.

The boy whose name was gathered to be Chidi was said to have gone to a petrol station located along Azikiwe road opposite St. Joseph’s catholic Church by Ochefu street to carry out a robbery operation in the company of his gang members in a commercial tricycle, but met the resistance of the pump attendance.

It was gathered that the incident attracted residents and other passersby who had sighted what was going on between Chidi, his gang and the petrol station pump attendants.

Sources told our correspondent that one of the gang members on the commercial tricycle wheel, upon sighting the crowd surging towards their direction, abandoned his colleagues and fled the petrol station, leaving them behind.

It was gathered that the robbers, on missing out fleeing the scene with their colleague, took to their heels in different directions.

The former Police inspector’s son was said to have been unlucky as the crowd abandoned his colleagues to go after him.

It was learnt that he was later trapped at Jubilee by High Court junction where they were on the verge of setting him ablaze when police from Aba Area Command of the Nigeria Police force who had gone after the crowd, rescued him after he had been beaten to pulp.

The suspect was said to be a popular face in the area as he and his parents lived at the police quarters inside the barracks until they were evicted from the barracks after the death of his father.

An eyewitness said Chidi and his family were residing at the Aba Area Command barracks for many years until the demise of his father which engineered their ejection from the barracks.

“I was shocked he was the one. We chased him from Azikiwe to this place (Jubilee by High Court). Many hit his head with stones, some used heavy sticks on him. It was when I looked at his face that I shouted.

“He lived with his parents at the Aba Area Command barracks before his father died. I’m not justifying his actions, but I remembered they were also chased out of the barracks since then.

“I felt pity for him, however, an armed robber is an armed robber. I never knew he was into this kind of life. He even came to steal in the area he grew up as a boy.

“Yes the police have taken him away, but I doubt if he will ever survive the beating because people were almost burning him before the police came.

“It was not easy to rescue him from angry people because armed robbers have made lives unbearable for many of the residents of Aba,” a resident who recognized him said.

Efforts made to reach the Abia Police Command spokesperson, ASP Geoffrey Ogbonna at the time of filing the report failed as his mobile lines could not connect.