The suspect identified as Olatubosun Bello is based in Port Harcourt Rivers state where he owns a mobile Italian shoe business.
Police sources said the Bello allegedly steals exotic cars from Lagos and take them to Port Harcourt to sell and for his personal use.
Investigations reveals that Bello is not new to the allegation leveled against him as the policemen attached to the Special Anti Robbery Squad Ikeja have arrested him in June 2014 for allegedly snatching two exotic cars in Lagos in a separate investigation .
It was further gathered that the SARS operatives recovered the exotic cars from Bello when he was arrested last year.
Bello was however rearrested in his home in Port Harcourt on January 12th 2015 after Pedro police detectives led by Inspector Solomon Olumide tracked a brand new Honda City IVTECH car to his house in Port Harcourt.
The police recovered the car which was stolen since 2013 and detained Bello in a cell.
The owner of the car who requested anonymity said the car was allegedly snatched at gun point from it at the Iju- Ishaga area of Lagos state on February 17th 2013 two weeks after the car was purchased.
Narrating how the car was snatched at gun point, the owner in her statement to the police said .
“ I was heading home that day on February 17th, 2014 when a man came out with a gun and ordered me to stop or he will shoot me. He told me that if I move he will shoot and kill me. I had just bought the car brand new two weeks after I was robbed . The car is a Honda City IVTech . I was scared not to incur his wrath so I handed him my car key.
“I felt that being alive was better than being killed so I surrender the car to him and he zoomed off with it. I reported the case to the Iju-Ishaga Police station and then to SARS at Ikeja but the policemen could not recover the car. I decided to write a petition to the Pedro Police station and I was surprised when they called me that they have recovered my car. I rushed down to see for my self and the car was right in front of me.
“The police told me that they also arrested the armed robber who stole my car. The man claims to be a dealer in Italian shoes but he does not have a shop. He was living in Port Harcourt and the car was recovered from him as he has made it his own. I discovered that he has changed the number I used to register it with another number FST 320 BE.
I learnt that the suspect is a serial car thief and SARS operated have arrested him for similar crime in 2014 and they allowed him to go after they recovered two cars from him. He did not sell my car but he was using it for himself. I am very grateful to God for helping the police to recover my car”
The suspect in his confessional statement to the police said he was using the proceeds from the car theft business to finance his shoe business.
He said “ I have an Italian shoe business in Port Harcourt and I used the proceeds from the cars I steal to finance my girlfriends . One of them is based in London. I also use the proceed from the car snatching to invest in my shoe business. My girlfriends travel abroad a lot and I use the proceeds from the car to sponsor them”.
Police sources added that Bello is a notorious car snatcher who have been arrested by policemen attached to the Special Anti- Robbery Squad Ikeja but was released after the SARS operatives recovered two exotic cars from him.
“We don’t know why the suspect was released by SARS operatives after he was arrested and two cars were recovered from him but he was not arraigned . He did not deny his arrest by SARS officials last year . he said his got involved in crime to send his girlfriends abroad. From our investigation, he is a notorious armed robber who specializes in stealing exotic cars from residents in Lagos and take them to Port Harcourt to sell. He only used his Italian shoe business to cover up his crime.”
It will be recalled that recently, eight suspected armed robbers were paraded by the Lagos State Police Command on Thursday for their involvement in various robberies including N100m around Alakija, Festac and a micro finance bank in Benin Republic.
No comments:
Post a Comment