The 40-year-old Adegboyega Ojo, who was arrested and sentenced to six-month imprisonment two years ago, was paraded alongside 10 others at the Eleyele headquarters of the Oyo State police command by the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abiodun Odude.
An unrepentant armed robber, who recently jumped bail after a six-month jail stint told journalists yesterday that he was only trying to help a friend in prison to sell a stolen car, when he was rearrested by anti-robbery operatives.
The 40-year-old Adegboyega Ojo, who was arrested and sentenced to six-month imprisonment two years ago, was paraded alongside 10 others at the Eleyele headquarters of the Oyo State police command by the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abiodun Odude.
Odude told newsmen that the suspect, who specialises in stealing exotic cars from parks, was arrested by the SARS operatives after selling a stolen vehicle. “The suspect had been paraded before, and after meeting the bail conditions of the court, he was set free after spending six months in prison.
“However, he is about going back to prison after he was nabbed again for the same offence he committed the first time. “Upon completion of investigation, the suspect would be charged to court to face justice for his crime,” Odude said.
Ojo, while speaking with journalists, explained that he used to work as a ceramic tiler before he went into stealing car, and that after he was released from prison two years ago, he began working at the Apapa depot.
“When I was arrested and sent to prison for stealing cars from where they were parked, I was taken to court and remanded in prison" “I was in prison for six months until my elder brother came to my rescue and helped secure my release.
“After I was released, he helped me secure a job at Apapa port, and that was how I began working there. I also vowed to quit stealing. “However, I met a friend of mine at the Port, who I had met earlier in during my prison stint. He was also into stealing of cars before he was committed to prison.
He told me that he had a car for sale, and that I should help him find a buyer. “I knew the car was stolen, but I was sympathetic to his plight, and decided to help him find a buyer in Ibadan. Although I was afraid to help him, he convinced me that there was no problem.
“I finally found a buyer, and we sold the car for N350,000; I was then given N30,000 as my share. “I was, however, arrested when the person who bought the car was arrested by the police, and the most painful part of it is that the person who stole the car is nowhere to be found.
“I am married with two children, but my wife has abandoned me; I don’t even know if my brother is aware that I am in another trouble again,” the suspect said. Meanwhile, a suspected car thief, Victor Joseph, who stole an Acura MDX Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) with registration number KJA 170 DS in a parking lot on Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos, has been arrested by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Oyo State Police Command at the Lagos/Ibadan old Toll Gate.
According to the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Abiodun Odude, the suspect, who was driving the stolen car to Abuja, was intercepted on the Lagos/Ibadan highway on July 18 at about 11:00p.m.
“The SARS operatives, due to their diligence, were able to detect that the vehicle was stolen, and the suspect was promptly arrested,” the police commissioner said.
However, while speaking, the suspect, Joseph, said he was a security man in a flat in Alade Estate, Allen Avenue, Lagos, where he earned N20,000 per month.
“Due to the lack of space in the compound, tenants in the compound do drop their car keys with me so that they wouldn’t have to come out to park and re-park their vehicles, every time a cop-tenant wants to move their vehicles in or out.
“So that was how I had access to the key of the Acura SUV, and my plan was to take it to Abuja airport where I would be using it as a cab. “However, on my way to Abuja, I was stopped by the police at the Toll Gate in Ibadan, and I was asked who owned the vehicle, and where I was going.
“I told them that the vehicle belonged to my boss, and that I was going to Abuja; they then asked for the vehicle’s papers, which I showed them, but when they asked me to call my boss that I had been stopped by the police, I couldn’t. That was how I was arrested,” the suspect, who revealed he was yet to get married, said.
The state police commissioner, however, said the suspect would be charged to court upon completion of investigation into the case.
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