Caught red handed: Ikeja phone thief

A suspected pick-pocket at the Computer Village in Ikeja, Lagos, was on Thursday arrested after he had robbed a policeman of his Tecno Y5 handset.

The suspect identified as 32-year-old Idowu Nojeem, had dipped his hand into the pocket of the policeman, an operative of the Lagos State Rapid Response Squad (RSS), and picked  his  phone.

The policeman,Sergeant Oladipo Adetumbi  soon noticed that his phone was missing.

The operative, who was not in uniform,  was on a surveillance mission around Ikeja Under-bridge. He  immediately pursued the suspect and caught up with him.

But the suspect refused to return the phone and started struggling with the policeman, and punching him. It took the joint efforts of some other policemen, who were called in, to arrest the suspect.

He was later taken by the operatives to where their patrol van was stationed at the Ikeja Under-bridge.

A witness who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that: “I was with the policeman when the suspect forcefully removed the phone from the operative’s front pocket. The policeman was on a surveillance mission in the area but was not in uniform. I saw a man moving towards the sergeant but he never knew he was a policeman because the man was not in uniform.

“As he moved closer to him, he stylishly covered his face with a newspaper, and removed the phone from his pocket. As I stood beside him when the incident occurred, we were all shocked that someone could have such effrontery to rob while many passers-by were moving. Immediately the policeman suspected that his phone had been removed, he pulled the suspect by his shirt but the suspect said he should forget his phone that it’s gone. He started beating the policeman before we could separate them,” he said.

“The police officer really showed doggedness by not allowing the suspect escape because as the fight was ongoing, he still held him tight on his trousers. When it was obvious that he was gaining an upper hand, the traffic warden and other policemen close by stepped in to separate them. Then, the operative dragged him to other RRS officers stationed at the Under Bridge, Ikeja,” the source explained.

Another woman, Adoh Nneka, who accused the suspect of also stealing her phones said “I was trying to board a bus to Ogba, when I sighted three guys including the suspect, walking beside me. The suspect was intermittently drawing my bag from behind but I held my bag tight to me. But I didn’t know he had used a razor to cut the bag, stealing my two phones (Tecno F5 and P5).

“Immediately I turned and checked my bag, my phones were gone. One of the passers-by, who saw the suspect when he was removing my phones, pointed at him for stealing my phone. Truly, I saw the two phones with him from afar but I was too afraid to confront him.

“Fortunately for me, I saw a crowd at under bridge looking at somebody. When I moved closer to know what was going on, I saw the same man (suspect) being handcuffed by the police for stealing an RRS operative’s phone. It was then I had the gut to explain to the police that he had earlier stolen my two phones before now.”