He allegedly executes his criminal exploits with professional dexterity for which he had literarily received garlands in the underworld at a tender age. For Emmanuel Vote, aged 20, the prison, now referred to as custodial centre, is a comfort zone.
Like a leopard which never changes its spots, Emmanuel is in love with his partners in crime, and desires their company wherever they might be, even in jail.
Scudnews learnt he was an inmate at the Kwale custodial centre of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCS) in Delta State, incarcerated for a long time over an alleged criminal offence for which he had reportedly been tried and convicted before luck smiled on him in April, this year.
In the wake of the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, the Delta State government granted amnesty to 150 convicts in custodial centres of the NCS across the state in a bid to contain the spread of the virus.
While 49 inmates benefitted from the gesture at the Warri custodial centre, 46 breathed air of freedom at Agbor centre; 25 at Ugwashi-Uku, 25 at Kwale, and three at Sapele custodial centre.
Emmanuel was said to be a beneficiary of the state governor’s prerogative of mercy among 24 other inmates at the Kwale custodial centre, all of whom were admonished by the Chief Judge, Justice Marshal Umukoro, who implemented the governor’s directive, not to return to crime, as the grant of clemency does not erase their criminal records.
But Emmanuel, a resident of Erovie Quarters, Ozoro, Isoko North Local Government Area of Delta State, will not heed Justice Mukoro’s advice, and is on his way back to jail barely three months after being pardoned.
The police in Delta State said Emmanuel was arrested at about 9.pm on Saturday, July 25, during a raid on a criminal hideout at Iyebe Street, Ozoro.
Recovered from him in an uncompleted building, according to the police, was a cut to size double barrel gun, while a member of his gang simply identified as Jacob JK reportedly escaped during the operation which was led by the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Ozoro, CSP Ogedengbe.
The police said preliminary investigation revealed that Emmanuel was an ex-convict recently granted pardon and released from the Kwale custodial centre of the NCS by the chief judge of the state, and upon interrogation, had confessed to his involvement in several robbery operations within the area.
Detectives at the Criminal Investigation Department of the Delta State police command are said to be cracking the nuts to unravel the dark path of a teen in the world of crime and why he is unwilling to let off.
Aruoriwo Ivovi, public relations officer in the Delta State Ministry of Justice, says he was not availed of the circumstances of Emmanuel’s release from the Kwale custodial centre and requested Scudnews to contact his counterpart at the High Court of Justice.
“I was not on the team for the exercise on the recent grant of pardon to inmates in the custodial centres. I am not in a position to speak with you on this issue. Please contact the PRO of the Ministry of Justice who will give you the details you want”, he said in a telephone chat on Tuesday.
To be sure, the circumstances of release from jail and police investigation of his fresh exploits promises the stuff of high drama as Scudnews updates our readers.
