‘We steal minimum of two phones a week’

A suspected pick-pocket, Godwin Okafor, who operatives of the Lagos State Taskforce arrested in the metropolis, has confessed to stealing an average of two phones in a week in conmercial buses. Okafor, who the Lagos State police command described as a member of a three-man gang of armed robbers operating usually between CMS on the […]

A suspected pick-pocket, Godwin Okafor, who operatives of the Lagos State Taskforce arrested in the metropolis, has confessed to stealing an average of two phones in a week in conmercial buses.

Okafor, who the Lagos State police command described as a member of a three-man gang of armed robbers operating usually between CMS on the Lagos Island and Maryland on the mainland, said whenever he was the driver of the gang’s operational commercial bus, his accomplices would be removing valuables from victims’ pockets or bags.

Okafor alleged that to avoid being identified by victims, they rotated the position of the driver of the commercial bus among themselves.

He said the gang’s modus operandi was that they would suddenly create a heated argument inside the commercial bus and while the argument heated up among the passengers, one of the gang members would slip two fingers into the pocket of a targeted victim and steal his/her valuable.

He confessed further that he and the gang had also operated at different parts of the state that included Oshodi to Mile 2, Obalende, Pen Cinema, Agege, Ojota and Ikorodu Road, adding that any passenger who refused to cooperate with them would be beaten up and thrown out of their commercial bus, which would be on top speed.

“We have been in this robbery and pick-pocketing business for long dispossessing our passengers of their valuables like wallets, jewelleries and phones, which we sold as fairly used items to the public,” he said.

The suspect also claimed they earned N80,000 to N100,000 every day after selling their stolen phones and other valuables.

The Chairman of the Lagos State Taskforce, Chief Superintendent of Police Olayinka Egbeyemi, who confirmed the incident, disclosed that Okafor was nabbed last week at the Costain Bridge in the Iponri-Surulere area by the Enforcement and Monitoring patrol team of the agency.

Egbeyemi disclosed further that preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect was the leader of a four-man criminal gang that specialised in using a commercial bus to pick pockets as well as violently robbing the public of their valuables.

“The suspect and three others, who are at large, was nabbed after they jumped down from a commercial bus on top of the Costain Bridge immediately they suspected that a patrol team of the agency was chasing them  from Ojuelegba,” the task force leader said.

According to him, there had been many complaints by commuters on the activities of criminals using commercial buses to rob them of their valuables, which prompted the officers of the agency to embark on regular patrol of every nook and cranny of the state.

Urging members of the public to always report any illegal and criminal activity around them to relevant law enforcement officers of the state,  Egbeyemi disclosed that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Zubairu Muazu, has directed that the suspect be charged to court.

Okafor, 31, of No. 127, Ojo Road, Ajegunle, confessed during interrogation that he started as a bus conductor 15 years ago before becoming a pick pocket.