Couple, son, girlfriend burgle neighbour’s home

A resident of No. 8 Ade Onitiri Street, Harmony Estate, Langbasa, Lagos, Mrs Folashade Odunuga, embarked on vacation on May 27, 2018, only to return and discover that her home had been burgled. Property Mrs Odunuga lost to the burglars included electronic appliances and a car.  Police investigations would later trace the crime to 45-year-old […]

A resident of No. 8 Ade Onitiri Street, Harmony Estate, Langbasa, Lagos, Mrs Folashade Odunuga, embarked on vacation on May 27, 2018, only to return and discover that her home had been burgled.

Property Mrs Odunuga lost to the burglars included electronic appliances and a car. 

Police investigations would later trace the crime to 45-year-old Uroye Teddy, his wife Margaret, his son Tega, 18, and Tega’s girlfriend, Karima Edom, who the police described as the victim’s neighbour who informed her lover of the victim’s vacation and absence away from home.

During interrogation, Tega confessed to the police she accessed Mrs Odunuga’s house through the ceiling and, thereafter, began to pack the household items to his father’s house.

He said, “My mother helped me to hide the stolen items in an uncompleted building, while my girlfriend, Karima, hid some in her house. My father also went with me to the victim’s house to tow the car (Mrs Odunuga’s vehicle the suspects stole at the house), which we parked in front of our house. My mum had sold some of the stolen properties.”

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Chief Superintendent of Police Chike Oti, who confirmed the arrest of the couple and their son, said that the theft had been going on for some weeks before Odunuga’s househelp, Eniola Abisola, visited her employer’s house to be confronted with a virtually empty apartment.

Eniola told the police she couldn’t understand how the thieves gained access to the apartment as all the doors to the house remained closed. 

She immediately alerted the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Langbasa Division, Superintendent of Police Adaobi Okafor, who mobilised detectives to start combing the neighbourhood and effecting a check on neighbours whose names were on the Division’s watch list. 

The police said when they checked on Tega’s parents’ residence at New Osho Layout, Langbasa, they saw Mrs Odunuga’s Chevrolet Aveo saloon car registration number AKD 512 AP allegedly parked there. He was promptly arrested.   

Oti mentioned the exhibits recovered from the suspects as including the Chevrolet saloon car, a 42-inch plasma television, a LG home theatre sound system, an electric generator, one standing fan, five leather bags, an iPad, baby shoes and other personal items.