The suspected pickpocket, Monday Ubi, 23, was nabbed by the operatives of Rapid Response Squad (RRS), following a distress call from a victim, Mr. Orji Ogbonnaya, after he had successfully removed the sum of N28,000 from his pocket inside a commercial bus heading towards Festac area.
Ogbonnaya told the police that the suspect sat beside him at the last seat of the bus and stylishly dipped his hands into his pocket to remove the money.
He said: “I boarded a bus to Mile 2 from Oshodi. On getting to Toyota, the suspect came in as another passenger because we still have vacant seats inside the bus. I did not have any inkling that he had a mission. I shifted a bit for him and he sat closer to me. When I noticed that he had removed the money from my pocket after I touched my thigh, I pretended as if nothing had happened. Then I was looking for where I can see any Police patrol vehicle to come to my rescue.
“When we reached Mile 2, he wanted to alight from the bus and I held his trousers, then I called the attention of RRS patrol team I saw around the area. Unknowingly to me, he has passed the money to one of his gang. But when the Police had surrounded us, we saw one man who just dropped the money on the road and fled away. Policemen ran after him but he absconded. Immediately, the suspect was arrested and conveyed to the squad’s headquarters, where he confessed that he actually stole my money and passed it to his partner, the guy who came to drop it”.
He thanked the policemen for coming to his rescue and recovering his hard-earned money, adding that the money has been handed over to him
The pickpocket, who lives at 19, Olutimeyin Street, Ipaja, Ayobo, made a confessional statement at the squad headquarters that he is one of the robbery syndicate operating in Mile 2, Ajegunle and its environs.
“I was selling second-hand clothes at Super, popular Kantagowa market along Lagos-Abeokuta express way. One of my customers introduced robbery profession to me. He taught me how to remove handsets and money from our preys without their knowledge. I intentionally sat beside him in the bus because we always know our victims. This is not my first time I had committed this act. I have been in this profession for close to two years now. Our gang specialized in stealing and removing handsets from innocent motorists. I want government to forgive me, now I realized that there is no gain in stealing”, Ubi said in his confessional statement to the Police.
In a related development, policemen in Ogun state arrested armed robbers who had been terrorising the neighbourhood by stealing and raping innocent victims.
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