How Two Nigerians Were Apprehended for Allegedly Robbing a Kuwaiti Exchange Office

Two unidentified Nigerian nationals have been apprehended by the Kuwait General Department of Criminal Investigation in the Ahmadi Governorate on allegations of participating in an armed robbery. According to a statement released on Wednesday by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior, as reported by Arab Times Online, the suspects were arrested within 24 hours following a robbery at an exchange office located in Mahboula, a district in southern Kuwait City. A 35-second video of the incident, which was viewed by PUNCH Metro on the Arab Times Online platform, depicts one of the suspects, dressed in a hooded sweatshirt, exiting a white vehicle before entering the exchange office. Upon entry, the same individual is seen in a brief, inaudible video brandishing what appeared to be a firearm at the staff of the exchange office, as noted by our correspondent. The suspects are alleged to have stolen foreign currencies amounting to 4,600 Kuwaiti Dinars, approximately valued at $14,918.69, based on the conversion rate from currencyconvertonline.com. The report stated, “Investigations revealed that the gang had meticulously orchestrated the crime, surveilling the exchange offices from adjacent rooftops to determine peak customer times. “They also utilized stolen license plates to obscure the identities of the vehicles involved in the heist.” One of the suspects, whose identity remains undisclosed, reportedly admitted after his arrest in Mahboula that he had scouted the location and informed his accomplice, whose name was also withheld, when the office was devoid of customers. “The second suspect was captured in the Al-Qurain Market, and the stolen funds, along with a small bag containing the narcotic substance known as ‘crystal meth,’ were recovered from his residence. “The Ministry of Interior has confirmed that both suspects and the confiscated items have been forwarded to the public prosecution for further legal proceedings,” the report indicated. PUNCH Metro recalls that in 2019, several Nigerians were recorded on video executing an armed robbery in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A Nigerian woman involved in drug trafficking, along with three accomplices—two from Pakistan and one from Yemen—was executed for drug-related crimes during the same timeframe. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the current Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission and a former aide to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari on Diaspora Matters, remarked in an interview with journalists in Abuja that this woman marked the eighth individual to face execution for drug offences in the oil-rich kingdom over the last three years.