‘I Didn’t Plan To Steal A Car; Just Wanted To Open The Door’

By Tunde Busari

ONE day, Ojo Oluwafemi was taking a casual walk somewhere in Ipaja, a Lagos suburb. Suddenly his sharp eyes sighted a car key. Quickly, he picked it up and threw it into his pocket. Another day, Oluwafemi was again on a leisure walk in the same area when he found another car key on the ground and picked it. Not knowing what to do with the two keys, Oluwafemi just kept them.

Two weeks ago, he saw a car which was parked at an open space with the owner out of sight. Oluwafemi then walked towards the car with the keys. He was trying to open the door when his luck ran out; the owner of the car caught him and alerted the people.

But Oluwafemi said, “I was only trying to test the key on the car. I didn’t plan to steal it. I am not a thief. I am a farmer, I do labour and sometimes work as bus conductor. I have never stolen anything in my life.”

The Investigating Police Officer (IPO) asked Crimelife, “What else do you expect him to say?” He said Oluwafemi’s argument was the usual trademark of criminals in their attempt to appeal for sympathy. He added that the owner of the car caught him red-handed.

“Our investigation has also shown that he was a member of a gang. He has a leader and he has given us his name. We are working on how to get other members of the gang,” the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Ipaja Divisional Headquarter told Crimelife.

Giving an account of his background, Oluwafemi said he did not grow to enjoy parental care, as his father and mother had separated when he was a baby. Oluwafemi, who is in his 20s, attended Royal International Nursery and Primary School, Ipaja. Later, he proceeded to Abesin Housing High School, where he sat his Senior Secondary School Certificate (SCCE).

With his experience in the police cell, he said he had realised his mistake and promised never to move near crime again. “The experience here is terrible. I know I made a big mistake; I will not do that again,” Oluwafemi lamented with tears rolling down his cheeks.

Robbers Devise New Method Of Stealing

By Tunde Busari

With the growing sophistication of the men of the underworld, the police may need to work harder at crime-busting in future. This is the fact that emerged recently upon discovering a hideout where robbers have perfected the art of turning a vehicle into a completely different one.

To discover the hideout, Crimelife found out, was an Herculean task to the police. It tested their will; but in the end, four of the robbers were captured while five brand new vehicles – including buses and assorted cars, were also recovered.

Crimelife reliably gathered that some vigilant members of the public had suspected the compound at Arifanta Village in Akute, Ogun State, as a hideout of some armed robbers. They, therefore, alerted the police at Ajuwon Divisional Headquarters last Thursday.

The police, on hearing the information, did not waste time as they dispatched an anti-robbery squad in the division to the said compound for necessary confirmation. Unknown to the police, the robbers had been monitoring them the moment they set their feet on the compound. To show their determination and prove that they were actually out to inflict pains on the police, the robbers quickly let their dogs loose on them.

“You can see that these are indeed criminals. They confronted our men,” Joseph Apapa, Commissioner of Police, Ogun State Command, said. However, Apapa’s men refused to be frightened. In a jiffy, they snuffed the life out of the three dogs, advanced into the compound and overpowered the robbers.

Okondu Cletus, 40; Anthony Nwaojini, 29; Nelson Mbata, 32, and Moses Njoku, members of the gang, were caught like fowls and are now reaping the reward of their criminality.

They put no one in doubt as to their mastery of the act as they spoke on how they worked on stole vehicles, removing the glasses and replacing them with new ones; changing their major components to outsmart security operatives.

They said the vehicles were usually kept in the compound for some time before selling them out to unsuspecting buyers. The vehicles recovered include a new black Honda Accord VTIL; Accord VTIL with registration BU 24FK; Toyota Sienna, NC 880 KJA; Mercedes Benz (no number); a black Infinity jeep (A2561 EPE); two white Toyota cars (no number); a Toyota Hiace bus.

“You can see that these are brand new vehicles. We learnt that after keeping them for a time in their compound, they usually carry them across the border to Benin, from where they will be returned to Nigeria as tokunbos.

“I am using this opportunity to warn members of the public to be very careful with vehicles they buy, especially the tokunbo cars. They may be these types of cars, stolen. Also, those whose vehicles were stolen should come forward to collect them,” the Commissioner of Police said.