The Oyo State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has arrested three suspects for vandalising street light cable, belonging to the state government, in the Ile Titun area of Ibadan.
The suspected vandals were identified as Aliu Musa, a Togolese aged 29; Joseph Michael, 25, from Anambra State but born in Taraba State, and 26-year-old Joseph Godwin Lakur from Plateau State, but also born in Taraba.
The NSCDC spokeswoman, Oyindamola Okuneye, who briefed journalists on the arrest on Tuesday, said that the suspects were discovered at the vandalism spot on July 28 at about 2 am.
The PRO stated that the vandals confessed to having initially cut the street light cable with a saw which they sold for N42,000 before their latest arrest at the second attempt.
Okuneye said that an investigation was ongoing to apprehend their accomplice and the cable buyer.
Also nabbed was a suspect, AnuOluwapo Opeyemi, who stole a tricycle from where it was parked in the Oje area of the city and took it to Iseyin town in Oke Ogun before it was tracked and recovered the same day.
According to Okuneye, the suspect destroyed some parts of the tricycle before he could drive it away from where he stole it.
In an interview, the suspect, who burst into tears and regretted shaming his family with his exposure as a thief, said that he was forced to do it because he had nothing to survive on.
He told the Tribune Online that he learnt the vocation of aluminum windows in Abuja but could not get money to establish it in Ibadan.
The suspect said that he did not have money to start his own business and those in the business in Ibadan didn’t want him because they thought he was from the north.
Blaming the devil, he disclosed that he sighted the tricycle in a hotel early in the morning and noticed that it was unlocked.
“I disconnected some cables and took them away. Immediately, I started using it to pick passengers, unknown to me that it was tracked.
“I had made N2,700 before my arrest in Iseyin.
“I feel like dying now because I’ve brought shame to my family and my generation. I’m so confused now; I don’t know what to do because many people will see me on television,” he explained.
The 24-year-old suspect confessed to smoking marijuana which he said he started taking since 2015.
He appealed to the government to get him a job to do, promising to stop smoking and stealing.
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