Posted by By OLUWATOYOSI OGUNSEYE on
The police in Lagos have held three young men who have been terrorizing residents of Shogunle, at the Oshodi area of the city. Sunday Salisu, Rasaki Aliu and Ozareshe Sule were nabbed after a robbery that went sour.
The police in Lagos have held three young men who have been terrorizing residents of Shogunle, at the Oshodi area of the city. Sunday Salisu, Rasaki Aliu and Ozareshe Sule were nabbed after a robbery that went sour.
Surprisngly, the men had been arrested last year by a community leader, who had to set them free after administering corporal punishment of several strokes of the cane on them, with serious reprimand to turn a new leaf.
Daily Sun gathered that to help them to keep to the straight path, the community leader sent them to learn a trade and was giving them some stipends on a daily basis to encourage them. However, his noble effort towards rehabilitation cut no ice with the boys as they went back to their old crooked ways.
Sunday Salisu aka ‘Tupo" said that the influence of bad friends made him return to his old trade. He said: "We usually robbed motorists of their phones at PWD and Oshodi.
We would go into traffic hold-up, give the driver a deadly blow and collect his phones. We had been doing this dirty business for the past two years until Chief arrested us. I made up my mind to change for the better when he sent me to learn tailoring job but the influence of my friends made me go back. I regret turning back."
Rasaki Aliu, 19, who was sent by the Chief to learn auto repairs said he needed money to pay his Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE). "I was looking for money for my exams, so I stole five Nokia phones with my gang.
The funny thing was that, my father would have given me the money if I had asked. I am really ashamed of my actions. We stole the phones and I had promised myself that as from January 1, I wouldn't steal again. But I am now in the police cell," he said.
Daily Sun gathered that the last of the trio, Ozareshe Sule popularly called "She She" was the most notorious of the trio. "We have been looking for him. He is a notorious GSM thief. He is the one in charge of selling the phones that the group steal at Ikeja. At times, he operates alone," the police officer in charge of the case said.
Sule, 21, said that poverty pushed him into stealing adding, that although he had been sent to learn a trade as a furniture maker, the little money he made was not enough for him.
Initially, when he was arrested, Sule claimed that the phone he was using was his. But this was proved to be false when the owner of the phone reported the theft to the police.
The complainant even came in with the receipt of his phone. So many people have also come to report the boys to us. In fact, residents of Shogunle said that they were happy the trio were in police net," the police officer said.