'I needed to raise N300K to pay my wife's bride price' - Robbery suspect

An armed robbery suspect arrested by the Ondo State Police Command has confessed that the desire to make N300,000 to enable him to pay his wifes bride price led him into the crime.

The suspect, Chukwuma Okoro who was paraded alongside other criminals at the headquarters of the State Command in Akure, the state capital, was arrested while trying to rob a sales girl of N500,000.

Pleading for mercy and another chance, Okoro said the pressure from his wife and her family to pay her bride price was too much for him and he had to take to crime to raise the funds.

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The State Police Public Relations Officer [PPRO], Femi Joseph who spoke while parading the suspect, said Okoro and the other suspects were among the armed robbers who had been terrorizing the state in the recent time.

Joseph said that Okoro and his gang attacked the girl who was taking the sum of N500,000 to the bank and as he was trying to forcefully collect the money from the girl, he was arrested by passersby.

“Okoro attacked a sales girl who was going to the bank to deposit a sum N500,000. As he was struggling to collect the money from her, the girl raised the alarm that attracted the passerby who arrested him.”

Joseph added that a locally made pistol was recovered from Okoro after he was arrested.

Okoro who said he was a vegetable seller in Akure, explained that his efforts to satisfy his wife and her family pushed him to robbery.

“It is my wife and her family that pushed me into it. I have never stolen in my life, this is the first time. She ran away from my house since three weeks ago and I have been begging her to come back, so I started looking for money to pay her bride price before she comes back.”

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The police spokesman said the suspect and others would soon be charged to court, adding that the command would not relent in the fight against crimes and criminality in the state.