His arrest came after years of manhunt by the police. It also constituted a piece of surprise for many because of the myth that surrounded his name. Obinna Okorie Emeka, an alleged sponsor of robbery gangs declared by the police as most wanted, was said to have the mastermind of numerous trucks and containers hijacked by dare devil bandits in different parts of the country.
Many members of the gangs he allegedly sponsored were said to have been killed or arrested by law enforcement agents while others had been tried and jailed, but Obinna remained elusive until he was recently arrested by operatives of the Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command.
Even the men that worked for him were said to have believed that he was too smart to be arrested by the police, particularly because he had the power to appear and disappear at will. Many police stations and commands, especially Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FedSARS) who had some years back arrested container and truck hijackers who claimed that Obinna was their chairman, were said to have tried in vain to track him down. Hence his designation as the most wanted sponsor of armed robberies. He was also regarded by the police as the biggest receiver of stolen goods in Nigeria.
Asked how Obinna appeared on the wanted list of SARS, a police source said that SARS operatives had arrested and investigated more than eight armed robbery cases in which the suspects confessed that Obinna was their chairman and sponsors, and that he was the receiver of all the containers and trucks they had hijacked or diverted.
The matter got to the knowledge of the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, who immediately directed the officer in charge of SARS, Abba Kyari, a Superintendent of Police, to launch a manhunt for Obinna. Kyari swooped into action with his men and got Obinna arrested after he had given them some tough time.
Upon Obinna’s arrest, it was discovered that his full name is Obinna Okorie Emeka, a 33-year-old indigene of Omo village in Olumba Local Government Area, Anambra State. But he was said to be resident at Ngozika Estate in Awka, Anambra State capital, where he was dealing in fairly used clothes. He was said to have been travelling to Cameroon to import the clothes before he ventured into crime.
During his days as a pupil, he was said to have been very brilliant as he always came second or third in a class of 60 pupils. He, however, could not proceed to secondary because of his father’s early death and the poverty that ravaged his family. He was said to have avoided marriage for fear that policemen might storm the wedding venue to arrest him or use his wife to track him down. He did not have a girlfriend either for the same reasons.
