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I am happy Gana has been killed- brother
By Modupe Shodeinde
The elder brother of late Benue notorious criminal, Terwase Akwaza (Gana) says his death has brought relief to the family.
Gana’s brother, Terkula Akwaza, said the killing of the Benue bandit leader has brought peace to the family and they could now live without the fear of being monitored by security agents.
“I am happy now that my brother has been killed. We now have peace in our family and will stop running up and down because of security agents. Government can take over all his properties.” he said
In an interview with Punch, Terkula revealed that Gana started his criminal activities in 1993 after which he later became a criminal working for politicians.
He said, “Gana started crime in 1993, when he started smoking Indian hemp and we didn’t know what to do about it. In that same year, a truck was stolen in the market. It was later discovered that Gana stole it and he was beaten. He ran away from the village and came back after five years.
“He came back with many boys loyal to him. They started with farming and moved to armed robbery. His strength grew and he became so notorious and dreaded. Some politicians started using him to kill their opponents.
“My family ran away from Benue State due to his activities, but I came back in 2016 after he was granted amnesty by the state government in 2015 and was given the slot to collect taxes from farm produce. He set up a company and made me the managing director. He was the one managing the company’s account and we were paying salaries to people working for the company and remitting the government own percentage to its account.”
Terkula said he assisted Gana in buying properties worth N200m with the money he sent to him.
“Later that year, Gana was accused of killing a Special Adviser to the Governor and he was declared wanted. Rather than surrender, he ran into the bush and started sending money to my account. I was using the money to buy landed properties. He sent me over N200m between 2017 and when he was killed.
He said Gana bought several properties which included a drilling machine worth over N35m, an excavator at the rate of N19.5m, two landed properties in Abuja for N5.7m, a land close to Abuja for N4.5m, a school and two houses in Makurdi, two houses in Benue State among others.
According to Terkula, Gana bought these properties in his children’s name and he (Terkula) supported him because he didn’t want people to say he was jealous of him.
