Eight Nigerians men are to face either the Hannah’s noose or beheading , whichever works in the Arab land Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a string of robberies at money exchanges and cash machines across the emirate in December 2016.
\nThey are however free to appeal, which may only lead to a commutation to a life imprisonment.
\nThey are unconnected with the five Nigerians in March this year, who came into the country two days before and robbed a Bureau de Change operator of Dh2.3 million (N225.4 million) in Sharjai, Dubai.
\nChimuanya Emmanuel Ozoh, Benjamin Nwachukwu Ajah, Kingsley Ikenna Ngoka, Tochukwu Leonard Alisi and Chile Micah Ndunagu thought they were in Nigeria where policing is a challenge, and were apprehended for their hopelessly failed adventure 48 hours later.
\nThey allegedly barged into the BDC on March 20 and smashed the glass barrier between the customers and the staff, stole the money in multiple currencies and fled.
\nTwo employees at the exchange were injured but one called the police. The Sharjah Police coordinated with forces from Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah and Ajman to nab the suspects from four emirates within 48 hours after the robbery was committed.
\nMeanwhile for those sentenced to death, the ninth Nigerian, found guilty for possession of stolen money was sentenced to six months imprisonment. He will be deported after serving his prison term.
\nThe Gulf News reported that the Nigerian denied the charge against him and said that one of the accused\u2019s brothers asked him to transfer Dh60,000 to an account in Nigeria.
\nAll the convicted Nigerians were not identified by both the Gulf News and Khaleej Times, all local newspapers, which reported the trial.
\nA total of 20 suspects were initially held for attacking security guards in four violent attacks at ATMs and money exchanges across Sharjah in late 2016. Out of 20 suspects, nine were convicted.
\nSome of the accused confessed to their crimes while others denied the charges levelled against them.
\nThe verdict was handed down by Judge Majid Al Muhairi of Sharjah Criminal Court on Wednesday.
\nThe eight-member gang attacked security trucks and entered establishments by force and threatened and assaulted staff and members of the public with bladed weapons in a spate of robberies, three of which were carried out on the same day on December 18, 2016.
\nThe gang, who were all in the UAE on visit visas, were said to be highly organised and plotted a string of orchestrated attacks to ambush security trucks that were transporting money boxes to and from ATMs, and at least one money exchange in Sharjah.
\nThe first robbery took place at a Dubai Commercial Bank ATM on King Abdul Aziz Street where Dh340,000 was stolen, then two days later they attacked an ATM in Al Safeer Mall in Al Nahda fleeing with Dh700,000, and an ATM in Muweilah where they stole Dh710,000. A fourth attack at a money exchange office near National Paints was foiled by police.
\nThe gang of 20 was arrested in record time but police confirmed that only a portion of the stolen money, almost Dh1.8 million, had been recovered, as the gang members had divided the money among themselves and transferred it to their home country.
\nSuspects were taken into custody in cooperation with police in Dubai, Ajman and Fujairah.
\nThe gang committed the heists at the busiest times of day when streets were
\ncrowded, which added to the confusion and enabled them to escape, said police.
\nIn each robbery the assailants struck quickly before police could arrive, the attackers however could not evade security cameras and police were able to recognise the suspects through surveillance footage captured at the exchange house in the mall.
\nVideo footage showed the suspects attacking security guards, making off with cash, and in one of the robberies slashing the hands of a security guard with a knife before running away with money boxes.
\nPolice believe the suspects had monitored and tracked the security trucks used to transport money for a period of time before launching the attacks took place.
\nA prosecutor told Gulf News on Thursday that as per the law, a group of people who threaten the life of others while committing robbery are subject to the death sentence, however an appeal is expected to be launched and the sentences could get downgraded to life imprisonment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eight Nigerians men are to face either the Hannah’s noose or beheading , whichever works in the Arab land Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a string of robberies at money exchanges and cash machines across the emirate in December 2016. They are however free to appeal, which may only lead to a commutation to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}