The Anambra State Police Command yesterday at the state Headquarters in Amawbia, Awka South Local Government Area, paraded one serving police officer, a dismissed officer and 25 suspected criminals for their alleged involvement in various criminal offences in parts of the state.

One of the policemen, Corporal Peter Ilo, a serving police officer with the Imo State Police Command while responding to questions from journalists, said that he was lured into armed robbery and car snatching by a friend who claimed to be an exporter of electrical gadgets residing in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

According to the police corporal, he came in contact with the Abidjan based friend in the jungle where he goes to smoke weed and other hard drugs and was drawn to him by his extravagant lifestyle and the kind of car he rode, saying that he only discovered his true identity when he came closer to him.

“I knew this man Ogbuefi Abidjan, that’s the name I know him from the bush where I used to go and smoke Indian hemp and other hard drugs and he used to always come with Toyota Highlander Jeep, and when I asked him about his identity, he said that he is an importer based in Abidjan. Later whenever he came back, he will bring me Belgium electronics like plasma TV, music theatre, radio, etc which I used to sell.

“He told me he brought those things from Abidjan and that he was the person that established his brother that is also based in Abidjan and sells drugs. He told me he also sells native medicines to people. That was how I came to take him as a friend without knowing that he was an armed robber. But when SARS arrested him, I heard that he had been arrested and I was still going to the same bush where we usually smoked weed from Monday till Thursday when SARS came and arrested me. He told them I was the one that thought him how to steal. Somebody that rides Highlander and lives in Abidjan is saying that me that do not have a bicycle taught him how to steal.”

Responding to question on whether he had provided ammunition to his friend ‘Ogbuefi Abidjan’ for any operation, he said no but that he had gone on one robbery operation with him on police uniform where they snatched a Lexus jeep.

He said: “We did not get money from the car we snatched. He said it was in the car that he got the plasma television and home theatre that he brought for me to sell. I went for the car snatching on my uniform because I usually go to the bush in the mornings on my uniform because after that I then go to work, I was on night duty.”

Ilo, an indigene of Enugu State claimed he had been in the police force for11 years.

Ogbuanu, who was dismissed from the police in 2005, was arrested at Upper Iweka in Onitsha with police uniform harassing commercial motorcycle operators.

Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Mr. Alli Okechukwu, who paraded the two policemen along with other suspects, said that the police officer, Ogbuanu was seen chasing a commercial motorcycle operator, adding that he was later arrested due to his suspicious behavior.

Ogbuanu, while admitting that he had been operating as a police officer since his dismissal from the force, told reporters that he was recalled last year but was yet to resume work.

The PPRO said the suspects would be charged to court after their cases were fully investigated.