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Police arrest suspected fake tyre vendor at Ladipo Spare-parts Market

By Odita Sunday
29 March 2017   |   4:13 am
The Lagos State police command has arrested two men, who allegedly specialise in changing the expiry date of used vehicle tyres, engine and chassis numbers.

tyres

The Lagos State police command has arrested two men, who allegedly specialise in changing the expiry date of used vehicle tyres, engine and chassis numbers.

The men, who claimed to be traders at the popular Ladipo Spare-parts Market, Mushin, were arrested while changing the expiry date of dozens of used tyres inside the market.

The Guardian learnt that one of the suspects, Samuel Obi, aged 19, sells tyres, but Izuchukwu Iwueze, 25, is the one who specialises in changing the expiry dates of such tyres delivered to him by Obi with a machine acquired for the ‘dirty’ job.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba, Bolaji Salami, confirmed the arrest yesterday.

According to Salami, “the suspects were arrested on Thursday at Ladipo auto market, while carrying out the criminal activities, stressing that they would be charged to court soon.

“The machine they have could change the date on vehicle’s tyres, engines and chassis numbers. We got information about them through intelligence from members of the public. We recovered some tyres they changed their expired dates as exhibits,” he said.

In his confession, Iwueze said he was introduced into the illicit business in November 2016 by one of his friends, now at large. He said some commercial motorists come with expired tyres and request that the date should be changed.

“Some customers come to us and ask us to change the date on their tyres because the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) officials were troubling them as a result of the date. We can change 2014 to 2016 within 10 minutes.

“The truck pushers also bring tyres to change their date. We change one tyre at the cost of N300 and we usually work on about 15 tyres daily. I work for one Jude Chukwukeku. He is my boss. He gives me, at least, N2,000 daily as reward for my work,” he confessed.

The second suspect, Samuel Obi, however, denied participating in the deal, stressing that he was arrested through the boy he sent to collect N1,000 from Izuchukwu.

“It is true I sell tyres, but I did not change the expired dates. I sent my boy to collect N1,000 from Izuchukwu. There he met the police who arrested him for being part of the crime.”

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