Posted by By OLUWATOYOSI OGUNSEYE on
A businessman is now telling the police all he knows about a stolen trailer filled with polished wood. Chief Barnabas Igene met his match in three young men who refused to be used and dumped.
A businessman is now telling the police all he knows about a stolen trailer filled with polished wood. Chief Barnabas Igene met his match in three young men who refused to be used and dumped. Jago-Jago, Ahamba Ihuoma and Nduka had stolen a truckload of polished wood worth over five million naira.
When it was time to pay them for the dirty job, he allegedly reneged and accused the men of duping him. He promptly reported them to the police. But Ahamba in particular refused to be cheated and blew the lid on Chief's nefarious activities. The police were only too glad to have him arrested with concrete evidence.
Ahamba said: 'I hustle at Westminster, Lagos. I do odd jobs to keep my body and soul together. My friend, Jago-Jago called me one night and showed me a trailer on the street that was full of polished wood. He suggested that we should steal it at midnight when the guards were sleeping. I agreed. We had no problem stealing it because Jago-Jago is a tanker driver. We drove the trailer to Iyana-Isolo and Jago-Jago called Chief Barnabas around 3a.m. Chief was very excited to hear from us. He told us that he would come out at 5.30a.m. Chief came with one Nduka and they took us to a warehouse at Okoko. Chief was the one that paid for the warehouse. After offloading it, we dumped the trailer and he drove us to a beer parlour and gave the three of us N10,000.
He asked us to come back the following Saturday for our money. I was supposed to collect a million naira but to my surprise, chief gave us N14, 000 the second time. I was really angry and he later gave me N30, 000. The next thing I heard was that Chief had gone to report us at the police station, that we were trying to dupe him. Someone we stole goods worth millions of naira for, instead of him to pay, he is playing tricks with us. I was not going to allow him get away with it, so, I told the police all I knew about him".
Chief Barnabas, however, denied all the allegations brought against him. He said that he collected the goods for ‘safekeeping' adding: 'Me? Chief Barnabas Igene, a traditional high Chief from Ideato, Imo State. Steal? Never! These boys were paid to bring me to shame. Of course, I collected the wood from them because Nduka was owing me. He said that the wood belonged to his boss and that he would give me my money when he sells the wood. When I started to suspect that the wood was stolen, I reported to the police".
The police were however surprised that the goods had disappeared in the warehouse at Iyana-Isolo.
The police officer in charge of the case said: 'Chief Barnabas had taken the goods to Onitsha. We had to go there with him to recover it. If it was for safe keeping, how come he transferred it to Onitsha?"