‘How I was caught with 27 phones’

A 19-year-old man, Saliu Oladunni, Thursday narrated how he was caught by the police with 27 phones burgled from a shop at Wole Ajeboriogbon Street, Sabo, Ikorodu.

The Nation gathered that the property is said to belong to one Mrs. Wasiu Omolabake.

Oladunni, who was arraigned before a magistrate’s court in Ikorodu Thursday, told The Nation that he wasn’t part of the gang that stole the phones, but he

helped the thieves to deliver them to phone sellers.

He said: “I was taking my broken phone to a mallam for repair when the guys asked me to take the 27 phones to the same mallam.

“The mallam repairs and sells phones, but I didn’t know he was working for the police too.

“It was when the police came and arrested me there that I knew the phones were stolen,” Oladunni claimed.

The Prosecutor, Corporal Mary Ajiteru, told the court that on August 31, 2015, Oladunni and several others at large at about 3:30am burgled Mrs. Omolabake’s shop and made off with 44 different phones and accessories worth N180, 000.

When the three-count charge was read to him in Yoruba, Oladunni pleaded guilty to conspiracy and stealing punishable under Sections 409 and 285 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2011 respectively. He denied the second charge of burglary.

The magistrate, Mr. O. O. Olatunji, ordered that the accused be remanded in prison and adjourned the case till October 22 for facts and sentencing.