A 39-year-old suspected car snatcher, Akeem Musa, has confessed to the style adopted by him and his gang to ‘butcher’ snatched vehicles so as to make them untraceable by the owners.
Musa also revealed how he acted as a passenger with other gang members to snatch their last victim’s commercial vehicle in Lagos State, after which he was arrested by Oyo State Police Command in Ibadan.
He made the confession last Friday at the press briefing by the Commissioner of Police, Adebola Hamzat, at the command headquarters at Eleyele, Ibadan.
At the briefing, the police commissioner, represented by the command spokesman, SP Adewale Osifeso, said that Musa and another gang member disguised as passengers and engaged the services of a commercial car driver, one Alli, to convey them to Ibadan.
“On getting to a desolate spot along Ibadan/Lagos expressway, the hoodlums suddenly brought out their weapons which were concealed while boarding the vehicle, and attacked the said victim after they had dispossessed him of his mobile phones, cash and some other valuable property.
“They pushed him out and escaped with his Opel Ventra car with registration number KTU 736 YG,” CP Hamzat disclosed.
Nigerian Tribune gathered that the incident was reported at Agugu Division and later transferred to Monitoring Unit for further investigation.
The police boss added: “After a discreet investigation, the suspected kingpin of the criminal gang, who was later identified as Akeem Musa, was arrested and the Opel car recovered from him.”
Information gathered revealed that with a buyer in mind, Musa reportedly headed towards Ibadan. On getting there, he was said to have put a call through to the man and took the vehicle to Agodi gate area in the capital city.
However, on seeing the car, the intending buyer had told the suspect that the vehicle was still very neater than being dismantled into parts for sale while the selling price proposed by him was too cheap.
When they could not agree on this, the suspect took the car, with the decision to dismantle the car himself and sell the parts. He was said to have taken the vehicle to a mechanic workshop at Oje area where he removed the engine. He had claimed ownership of the vehicle and told the mechanic that it had engine defect, saying that he wanted to sell the faulty engine to spare parts traders at Gate area, with the plan to add money to buy another.
He reportedly returned to Gate area where he sold the engine to the same intending buyer for N40,000. However, his movement with the vehicle raised suspicion of people living within Oje where the suspect was also domiciled. They felt something was fishy as they never knew him as car owner. This led to a report to the police station nearest to them, resulting in his arrest.
During interrogation, Musa reportedly confessed to how the car was snatched from the owner and brought to Ibadan.
Thirty-year-old Musa, in an interview, said: “I was a mechanic but stopped the job when my father died. I started driving towing vehicles in Lagos State. I also left the place and returned home in Ikire, Osun State
“When I couldn’t get any job to do, I went back to Lagos. There too, I didn’t get a job until I joined a car wash stand as an employee in Ijora. A young man, Abass, was also working there. A Golf car was parked at the car wash stand which the owner left there for washing. A suggestion was made by Abass for us to steal the vehicle for sale. I drove it to Ibadan where itwas dismantled and sold in pieces. We were paid N400,000 and I got N150,000 as my share.”
How second car was snatched
“I met the suspect at large, known as Ajeye, at Oje in Ibadan and I went back to Lagos with him and his friend. I told him a lie that I was working as a driver of Federal Mass-Assisted bus. Ajeye pleaded to follow me to Lagos so that he would be the bus conductor.
“For three days after we got to Lagos, we had no job to do. That was how we came up with the idea to snatch a car from its owner. On the day we carried out the operation, the driver picked us from Maryland. When we got to a spot, I told the man that he should stop for us. I didn’t know that Ajeye hid a cutlass in his body. He brought out the cutlass and the driver started pleading with us not to kill him. As he got down, I took over the steering wheel and we drove to Ibadan.
“When I got to the intending buyer, he said that the vehicle was too neat and he could not dismantle it. He advised me to park it somewhere until the dust would settle. I took the car to a mechanic and he asked for the owner. I took the intending buyer to him and said that he was the vehicle owner. I removed the engine and took it to him. He paid N40,000.”
How I was exposed
“Some members of Odua People’s Congress (OPC) who noticed the vehicle became suspicious, as they knew I had no job to get an amount that would buy a car. They went to report at Agugu police station and I was arrested.”
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