Posted by By Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye on
A notorious phone snatcher in the Shogunle area of Lagos has been nabbed by the police. Stephen Atita had gone into hiding when his gang members were arrested last month. Luck, however, ran out on him when the police acting on a tip-off, traced him to this hide out on the outskirts of Lagos.
A notorious phone snatcher in the Shogunle area of Lagos has been nabbed by the police. Stephen Atita had gone into hiding when his gang members were arrested last month. Luck, however, ran out on him when the police acting on a tip-off, traced him to this hide out on the outskirts of Lagos.
Atita told Daily Sun that he started stealing last year. He said: "I started stealing with Lemon, Aba and Kazeem. We used motorcycles to trace our victims before holding them to ransom with jack knives and broken bottles. Later on, I decided to start robbing people alone. I used to give Waheed the phones, to sell for me, Waheed too is a thief though he hides under the cloak of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC)."
Atita, 24, who is a generator mechanic, said that the business was not bringing him enough returns, so he resorted to stealing.
The gang, however, met its waterloo on January 1, at Ikeja, when its member hijacked a commercial which they used to rob.
"We held broken bottles and knives to the bus driver's throat and threatened to kill him. We were stopping passers-by and collecting their phones. Unfortunately, we ran into the police. While my gang members were arrested, I escaped.
On his encounter with the criminals, the bus driver said: "They shouted at me that they were OPC. members, I stopped my bus for them because they threatened me. To my surprise, they started robbing. I could not shout until the police came to my rescue."