A couple- man and his pregnant wife have been paraded by the Police Command in Bayelsa over armed robbery charges.

A pregnant woman and her husband have been arrested for armed robbery in Bayelsa state.

The couple, 35-year-old Preye Idan and his 18-year-old pregnant wife, Divine, were paraded by the police before journalists in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa state capital. The couple claimed they turned to armed robbery because they had no other means of survival.

Before their new family business, Preye who is a father of one was a timber merchant. It was gathered that they were paraded by the police on Wednesday, November 1, 2017, alongside 94 other suspects arrested for various criminal activities in the state.

The couple, 35-year-old Preye Idan and his 18-year-old pregnant wife, Divine, were paraded by the police before journalists in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa state capital. The couple claimed they turned to armed robbery because they had no other means of survival. Before their new family business, Preye who is a father of one was a timber merchant.

It was gathered that were paraded by the police on Wednesday, November 1, 2017, alongside 94 other suspects arrested for various criminal activities in the state.

According to Punch report, Preye claimed he bought a pistol with live .9mm ammunition from a gunrunner with which he robbed a boutique at Biogbolo-Epie in Yenagoa metropolis forcing the owner, Juliet Uchenna, to hand over her sales for the day at gunpoint on September 21, 2017.

He claimed that his kinsman Iro Royereyigha (30), helped him and his wife secure a gun they used during the operation. Preye said: “We were so poor that we could not afford the basic things of life. There was nobody to help. That was why we thought we could break out of poverty by going into robbery for survival. That was our first time of carrying out a robbery. I gave Royereyigha N1,000, when he handed the gun to me. He told us that after we carried out the robbery, we must give him N100,000 for the gun."

Corroborating Preye’s account, his wife, Divine, agreed that both of them went for the robbery operation at the boutique. Preye's wife, Divine said: “Both of us went to Royereyigha’s house. We actually asked for toy guns but he said he could not arrange toy guns but real ones. The plan was that I should pretend as if I wanted to buy clothes and other items at the shop. In the process, my husband was supposed to come and threaten them with the gun. The plan worked as we conceived. That day, we met two ladies at the boutique – the owner and one of her assistants.

"After my purchases, my husband came in with the gun and asked them to lie down on the ground. As they were lying down, he asked me to go and fetch a tricycle to enable us to escape. As I left the place, one of the ladies escaped and raised the alarm. Her screaming attracted passers-by, who apprehended us and handed us over to the police."

But when the police arrested Royereyigha, he confessed that he sold the gun to the couple and not rented it out as they had claimed earlier. He is also in the trade with his 24-year-old wife, Abazi, who he kept his bag containing guns with. But his frozen foods dealer wife said she was not aware of the content of the bag which he gave her to keep for him.