Operatives of the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences (Taskforce) Unit have arrested a notorious thief responsible for the robbery and pick-pocketing across the metropolis.
The Taskforce Chairman, CSP Olayinka Egbeyemi disclosed that the suspect was nabbed on Costain Bridge in Surulere by the Enforcement and Monitoring patrol team of the Agency during a routine patrol of the area.
In his words, “The suspect and three others, presently at large, were nabbed after they jumped down from a commercial bus on Costain Bridge immediately they suspected that a patrol team of the Agency was trailing them right from Ojuelegba”.
According to CSP Egbeyemi, the task force has received series of complaints from commuters on activities of these criminals using a commercial bus to rob victims of their valuables, prompting officers of the Agency to embark on a regular patrol of every nook and cranny of the State.
He stated further that preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect was the ring leader of a four-man criminal gang which specialised in pick-pocketing and other forms of robbery.
The gang’s activities, he said, deprived unsuspecting commuters of their valuables such as phones, wallets and jewellery via the use of a commercial bus in different parts of the State.
The Chairman maintained that the operatives of the Agency and other security agencies in the State would not relent in curbing crime and criminal activities being perpetrated by miscreants and hoodlums across the State.
The suspect Godwin Okafor (31) of 127, Ojo Road, Ajegunle, confessed during interrogation that he started as a bus conductor 15 years ago before becoming a notorious pick-pocket.
According to him, his criminal gang had operated in different parts of the State including Oshodi, Mile 2, Obalende, Pen-Cinema, Agege, Ojota and Ikorodu Road and any passengers who refused to cooperate with them were beaten and thrown out of their commercial bus at top speed.
“We have been in this robbery and pick-pocketing business for long as we dispossessed our passengers of their valuables such as wallets, pieces of jewellery including phones which we sold as fairly used to the public”, he said.
The suspect also claimed they were making N80,000 to N100,000 every day after selling the stolen phones and other valuables.
