The police authorities in Edo State have arrested an ex-convict for armed robbery in the state.
Spokesman for the Edo State Police Command, Moses Yamu, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.
Yamu, a Superintendent of Police, said the ex-convict was apprehended just two days after serving a jail term for robbery.
According to him, the arrest followed a distress call on Sunday, December 22 that robbers were attacking a church in Benin City.
“On 22/12/2024 at about 1145hrs, following a distress call that armed robbers were operating at Restoration Gospel Ministry, situated at no. 11 Oviasuyi street off Ogiemwenke in Benin-City,” the statement read.
The police spokesman stated that operatives recovered a cut-to-size gun from the ex-convict.
“Operatives of Saint Saviour Divisional Headquarters immediately mobilised to the scene where one John Agbontean 35yrs was arrested with a cut-to-size gun while attempting to rob the church.
“Upon interrogation, the suspect confessed being an ex-convict that gained his freedom from Oko Prison, Benin-City on 19/12/2024. He stated that he and his accomplice, one Ola whose surname is unknown now at large, conspired to rob the aforementioned church of the proceeds from the Church’s end-of-year harvest thanksgiving where he was arrested in the process, while his accomplice narrowly escaped arrest,” Yamu said.