The police in Anambra State, South-east Nigeria, have arrested a suspected member of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Charles Chinonso, in the state.
The police spokesperson in Anambra State, Tochukwu Ikenga, disclosed this in a statement forwarded to PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday.
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Mr Ikenga, a superintendent of police, said operatives of the Anambra State Police Command attached to the Special Anti-Cultism Squad in Enugwu-Ukwu the suspect on Sunday.
“The arrest followed a complaint by the victim, who reported that the vehicle was snatched at the World Bank Housing Area, Owerri West Local Government Area, Imo State.
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“Acting on credible technological intelligence, police operatives traced the vehicle to its location and effected the arrest,” he said.
The spokesperson said the operatives recovered the vehicle, earlier reported stolen in Imo State, from the 32-year-old suspected IPOB member.
He said the vehicle was recovered from the suspect at Umuazu Village, Nise, in Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State.
Mr Ikenga said the Commissioner of Police in Anambra State, Ikioye Orutugu, assured that the command would liaise with the police command in Imo to ensure that the suspect and the recovered vehicle were “processed in accordance” with extant legal procedures.
Mr Orutugu explained that the collaboration with the police command in Imo was because the alleged armed robbery occurred in Imo State.
Prohibited in Nigeria
IPOB is an outlawed group seeking an independent state of Biafra, which it wants carved out from the South-east and some parts of the South-south of Nigeria.
Stealing is outlawed in Section 390 of the Nigeria Criminal Code Act.
Offenders, on conviction, face three years’ imprisonment or more, including payment of a fine, depending on the item stolen and its value, according to the law.
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Several people have been convicted of stealing across the country.
An Iyaganku Magistrate Court in Ibadan, in June 2022, sentenced a 23-year-old man, Isaac Dumabara, to one month imprisonment for stealing one pot of stew and meat worth N40,000 from a restaurant.
A former deputy chief registrar of the Oyo State High Court, Mutiat Adio, was, in March 2020, sentenced to five years imprisonment after she was found guilty in a one-count charge of stealing.
