Lagos police parade suspected vehicle parts thieves
• Dispels rumour of robbery attacks in Ikoyi, environs
Lagos State Police Command, yesterday, paraded four members of a syndicate that specialised in vandalising and selling vehicle parts.
Police operatives attached to Surulere Division arrested the suspects on Wednesday, September 7, after a report was received that three Mercedes Benz Sports Utility Vans (SUVs) brought in for repairs at a mechanic workshop were vandalised, while their brain boxes and oil pumps were stolen.
The Command’s spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin said the suspects, 21-year-old Ayinla Aliaminu; 20-year-old Sodiq Odugbade; 20-year-old Aliyu Yusufa and 18-year-old Ayomide Ogunshiyi, who were mechanic apprentices in the neighbourhood, have given useful information to the police. He added that efforts are on to arrest receivers of the stolen items while the suspects have since been arraigned.
The state’s Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alabi, has also assured Lagosians of relentless efforts of officers and men of the Command to bring crime to the barest minimum.
ALSO, the Command has dispelled rumour of robbery attacks in Ikoyi and environs in Lagos. Rumour of attacks in the area went viral last week after a Twitter user, by the name, Ayo FBI @PureMinD__ shared a picture of a robbery attack in Abuja and tagged it as an incident that happened in Lagos.
He later deleted it and went further with another tweet on September 9, 2022, and wrote: “Today, Lagos saw probably the unprecedented robbery incident in history. Eko Bridge was robbed, as usual, Osborne Ikoyi was robbed, and Carter Bridge was robbed. All, simultaneously. But the most interesting part of it , is that if it was a peaceful protest being held, police would be unlimited”. But the tweet was found to be false.
Also, another video of a man with a bloody face who claimed to have been robbed and attacked along the Osborne road went viral, but the Command insisted that such an incident never took place and it was not reported at any police station.
Speaking with The Guardian, the Command’s spokesperson said: “There is no evidence of robbery around the area. There is nothing to show that the video circulating is a recent video. We have been asking around but there is no evidence of such, nobody has come forward to report it. There is nothing, except social media robbery.
“The case got the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) and it appeared that some people just wanted to put themselves into trouble with the CP. They were worried that they went about asking residents if there was robbery in the area, but nobody said anything to confirm the incident. The person that claimed he was robbed never reported the case to the police.
“A guy called Ayo FBI on Twitter retweeted the picture of a car that was broken into in Abuja and claimed it was a traffic robbery. After he discovered it wasn’t Lagos, he deleted it. So, for us, there is no evidence of such in those areas.
“We know that traffic robbery happens in Lagos but saying it happened simultaneously in Lagos on Friday on three different roads in Lagos is a lie.”
On the increase in traffic robbery in the state, he said: “We are making use of all the resources. Traffic robbery has reduced because of our efforts. It used to be worse than this. “We are not relenting, we take cognisance of the reports and we appreciate people reporting cases. We collate and use them to map where they occur and how they occur. So, we are working on it and it will continue to decrease.”
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