By Babatunde Solanke
A 14-year-old suspect, Gift Peace, who was arrested in connection to a robbery case in the state, has confessed to police operatives in Delta State that he started the criminal act at the age of seven.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Edafe Bright, who made this disclosure in a statement on the command’s X handle on Wednesday.
According to Bright, Gift was arrested following a distress call received at the ‘B’ Division Warri on September 29.
He explained that a police undercover operative sighted one of the suspects during their robbery operation at the Giwamu junction Warri and trailed him to a suya spot at Enerhen Junction, where he was nabbed.
The state police image-maker said the robbery gang engaged the officers of the command in a gun battle, leading to the death of one of the suspected leaders of the gang.
“The teenager confessed to being a member of an armed robbery gang that terrorizes Warri and its environs and that he has been in the act since he was seven (7) years old. He mentioned other members and thus took the detectives to their hideout.
“The gang members, upon sighting the police, opened fire from their unregistered operational tricycle, and due response was given to their hostility. In the process, one of the suspects, who was later identified as the leader of the gang, sustained serious gunshot injuries while others escaped.
“He was taken to the hospital, where he was eventually confirmed dead by the doctor. The exhibit recovered includes the following: the operational tricycle of the gang, one locally made cut-to-size single barrel gun with stocked expended cartridges, and three live cartridges,” Bright said in the statement.
“Two male gang members, Idigbe Osreis (19) and Idigbe Perfect (16), were later arrested at their hideout. Efforts are ongoing to arrest the fleeing members and also to recover more of their operational arms.
“The Delta State Commissioner of Police CP Wale Abass, while emphasizing the necessity of adequate parenting as an essentiality in the fight against crime, advices that parents should be alive to their responsibilities, and safeguard the future of their wards by monitoring and teaching them valuable precautionary lessons that will help them avoid bad companies and hence stay away from criminal activities,” the statement added.