The Nation Newspaper

Tag: phone thief

  • Phone thief gets seven-year jail term

    An Ikeja Chief Magistrates’ Court yesterday sentenced a bus conductor, Daniel Oye, 33, to seven years imprisonment for stealing phones and other accessories worth N1,084,300.

    Chief Magistrate Olufunke Sule-Amzat found Daniel, a father of two, guilty of the charge following his guilty plea.

    She said: “This sentence would serve as a lesson to you and others who may want to follow you”.

    Prosecuting Inspector Benson Emeurhi told the court that Daniel committed the offence on June 3 at Oluwaga Junction, Ipaja, Lagos.

    Benson explained that the defendant was caught around 12.35am with an iron rod used to break into the shop of Fole Douglas, the complainant.

    Benson said the defendant was with two others in a vehicle to load the items.

    He said when they noticed the night guards, they drove off leaving Daniel in the building.

    “They escaped with items such as Samsung J7, Samsung J5, Techno Phantom 5, Techno 312, Bluetooth hands-free, memory cards, Huawei phones and Huawei mate phones valued for N1,084,300, properties of Fole Douglas.

  • RRS nabs phone ‘thief’ caught on CCTV footage

    RRS nabs phone ‘thief’ caught on CCTV footage

    RAPID Response Squad (RRS) operatives  have arrested a suspected phone thief, allegedly captured on a Close Circuit Television (CCTV) footage now circulating on  social media.

    Timilehin Olaniyi allegedly told the RRS that he stole the iPhone 8s in his desperation to pay his  N80,000 school fee.

    Olaniyi, a 200-level student of D. S. Adegbenro Information Communication Technology (ICT) College in Wasimi,  Ogun State,  claimed that he came to the Computer Village in Ikeja on February 16 to sell an iPhone 5s given to him by his course mate to enable him raise money for his school fee.

    A RRS statement yesterday claimed that he stole the iphone 8s  while there. Olaniyi was arrested on Thursday.

    The suspect was tracked and arrested in Wasimi, Ogun State by the RRS Decoy Team.

    The RRS quoted Olaniyi as saying : “I was in Lagos on the invitation of a close friend. He is aware that I was struggling to pay my school fees, so he gave me an iphone 5s to sell in order to raise money.

    “So I went to Computer Village to sell the phone. When I entered the phone store, my plan was to know the price of Iphone 7s but it was not available. I noticed that one of the attendants went out leaving behind an Iphone 8s on the table. I don’t know what came over me. I monitored the other attendant and I went away with the phone.  I never knew I was captured by the CCTV. I sold that iphone 5s to pay my tuition fee while I started using the iphone 8s.

    “It was about the second day that the friend I was squatting with sent me packing from his house over a CCTV footage circulating on the internet of a phone thief. He said I was the one.”

    Olaniyi, it was learnt, failed to open up to his elder brother who saw him sporting a T-shirt he bought for him in the video.

    The brother had gone to hire a lawyer over the case  before the suspect confessed and was arrested few days later.

  • Phone thief gets one month jail

    An Ikeja Chief magistrate’s Court yesterday sentenced a 25-year-old man, Ayobami Michael, to one month in Kirikiri Prisons, Lagos, for stealing a phone worth N60,000.

    The court did not give him an option of fine.

    Chief Magistrate O. A Olayinka convicted him after he pleaded guilty.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Michael pleaded for leniency before he was sentenced.

    Magistrate Layinka said:”Based on the facts of this case confirmed in the report and the plea of leniency, I hereby sentence you to one month in prison without an option of fine.’’

    Earlier, Police Prosecutor Donjor Perezi told the court court that Michael was arraigned for stealing.

    Perezi said the accused stole a mobile phone valued at N60,000 on May 6 at 2.00 p.m. at 22, Awolowo way, Ikeja, Lagos.

    The accused, he said entered the shop of the complainant, Obiora Chinyeaka, on the pretext of being a customer, stole the phone and ran away.

    “The accused had told the seller that he wanted to buy a Huawei P8 mobile phone and asked the complainant to bring out the phone for him to see before making payment.

    “Within split seconds, Michael absconded with the phone and was nowhere to be found until he was apprehended on May 22.”

  • Notorious phone thief jailed

    Notorious phone thief jailed

    A Grade 1 Area Court in Karu, Abuja, on Wednesday sentenced a notorious phone thief, Ikechukwu Emmanuel to 21 months imprisonment.

    The judge, Mr Hassan Ishaq, did not give an option of fine to Emmanuel, who pleaded guilty to two separate charges.
    Ishaq sentenced Emmanuel to nine months imprisonment on the first charge bordering on stealing a Nokia phone.

    He sentenced him for one year imprisonment for the second charge which bordered on conspiracy, trespass and theft which contravene Sections 79, 348 and 257 of the Penal Code.

    Ishaq held that Emmanuel was a notorious thief, and ordered him to pay a compensation of N 15, 000 for the Nokia phone he stole from Mr Kelechi Ogbasa’s on March 26.

    The phone is worth N15,000, according to the prosecutor, Mr Mamood Ismail.

    The prosecutor submitted that Emmanuel stole the phone while Ogbasa was sleeping.

    According to the second charge sheet, the convict, on the same day, trespassed into Mr Gospel John’s room and stole his HTC phone worth 50,000, also while he was sleeping.

    The judge held that Emmanuel conspired with a person still at large to commit the offences also on March 26.

    He ordered Emmanuel to pay a compensation of N 50, 000 to John.

    The prosecutor had also drawn the attention of the court to its Jan. 25 record which showed that Emmanuel was convicted and sentenced to seven months imprisonment with option of fine for stealing a phone.

    He said that the offences contravene Sections 79, 348, 287 and 102 of the Penal Code.

  • Suspected phone thief caught in Oshodi

    Rapid Response Squad (RRS) Operatives, have arrested an 18–year-old serial phone thief in Oshodi.

    Sadeeq Wasiu, who has been imprisoned seven times, was re-arrested in Oshodi on Tuesday after several months of being on the operatives’ wanted list.

    Wasiu, alias “Omo Eiye”, was arrested at Oshodi Under Bridge while trying to escape after snatching an Infinix Note 3 from an undergraduate.

    A statement from RRS yesterday said before his arrest, Wasiu had been wanted over the attempted snatching of four phones and two bags in Oshodi.

    RRS said he told interrogators that he was released from Potoki Prison in Badagry last month.

    According to the operatives, the suspect said he ran away from Ikire in Osun State when he was 15.

    RRS quoted him as saying: “I was 15 years when I came to Lagos to work as a conductor in 2014. My parents are not aware I am in Lagos. My popular name is Eiye. I steal phones from people at Oshodi. We are three in my group – Ahmed alias Oyi, Tombolo and I. We have stolen more than 45 phones as a group and I have stolen countless number of phones individually. I used to sell the phones at Idi-Oro, Mushin. I sell the phones according to their make. I sell some N10, 000 and N8, 000. I have gone to jail seven times.

    “I sell Indian Hemp too. I buy it from Spider on Lagos Island and I resell in small wraps to over 50 of my colleagues in Oshodi. I can buy N4, 000 and break into small wraps and sell for N8, 000.”

    Police spokesperson Dolapo Badmus, a Superintendent (SP), said the suspect has been transferred to the Lagos State Task Force in Oshodi.