Wheel barrow pusher, 2 others arrested over vandalism, theft

A 27-year-old wheel barrow pusher suspected to have vandalised a truck and selling items he stole from it has been arrested by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS). The suspect, Sunday Ogbonna, was arrested on Friday with two suspected buyers of some of the vandalised items at Toyota bus stop, Oshodi, Lagos. The police […]

A 27-year-old wheel barrow pusher suspected to have vandalised a truck and selling items he stole from it has been arrested by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS).

The suspect, Sunday Ogbonna, was arrested on Friday with two suspected buyers of some of the vandalised items at Toyota bus stop, Oshodi, Lagos.

The police said they recovered a radiator, two heavy duty batteries and four jerry cans filled with diesel oil from Ogbonna’s wheel barrow.

The suspect was said to have confessed that the recovered items were handed over to him in Ilasa, Lagos, by two young men at about 4am on Friday.

He added that he was close to the Ladipo spare parts market, Oshodi, when the police stopped him.

He said, “I looked back and I didn’t see any of the guys that had engaged me to carry the items. That wasn’t the first time I would be helping them to carry materials like that to Ladipo. It was the fourth. I charged them N2,500 for the materials.

“Once I got to Ladipo, they would tell me to wait while they sold off those materials and then paid me. The materials I helped them carry before this were eight jerry cans filled with diesel and batteries. They were sold off in Ladipo.”

The suspected buyers, Leonard Onyegbuchi, 50, and Hassan Umoru (55), allegedly confessed to have bought heavy duty batteries and diesel oil from Ogbonna. They also confirmed making payments ranging from N15,000 to N20,000 to the wheel barrow pusher but pleaded that they never knew the items were stolen.