Two men, Asakpa Ufoma, 22 and Omedo Augustine, 20, have been arrested by the Lagos state police command for phone theft.

The operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command that apprehended them alleged that they specialized in stealing handsets and valuable items.

The Police said the duo, who burgled shops of innocent members of the public at Abule-Oja in Yaba, were arrested by the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command on October 13.

The suspects, having confessed to the crime after their arrest, accused each other of leading one another into the act.

DAILY POST gathered that one of them (Ufouma) pleaded with the Police that his parents must not know that he engaged in stealing.

According to him, “I was a secondary school dropout. I was unable to proceed to senior classes after I failed Junior WAEC. My parents took me to my brother’s shop to learn how to repair generators but I couldn’t endure the period of apprenticeship.

The suspect who hails from Ndokwa Local Government Area in Delta State said while looking for ways to earn quick money, he met his partner who introduced him to stealing.

“I joined him about 10 months ago and the police never caught us,” he said.

“In fact, my parents must not know that I am a thief because I leave home every day as if I was going to work. I have regretted my actions for taking to stealing for survival. It is the devil that pushed me into it,’’ he lamented.

Confirming the arrest, the RRS Commander, ACP Olatunji Disu, said the thieves were arrested at about 6.22 p.m. after they had successfully stolen three handsets from a shop in the area.

According to Disu, the policemen on patrol went after them when they received a distress call about the incident.

The commander said, “Our policemen who were on routine patrol around Yaba axis got a distress call from victims informing them that there were thieves who robbed them of their valuables.

“The suspects took to their heels but the policemen chased and caught them while they attempted to mount their ‘Okada’.

“On apprehension, they were conveyed to the squad’s headquarters in Alausa for interrogation,” Disu added.

“According to police reports,” Disu continued, “Upon completion of our preliminary investigation, we discovered that the two suspects specialized in stealing phones and other valuable items under the pretense of buying products from any shop they visited.

“The duo confirmed that their tricks was to disguise as buyers and once they found out that the seller is sleeping or off their sights, they will pick their phones, money and other valuables,” Disu noted.

The other suspect, Augustine who reports say lives at number 10, Kehinde Str, Ajegunle, Lagos, regretted that bad friendship lured him into stealing.

He said, “When I entered the shop pretending to buy a sachet of water, I saw a phone charging in the shop.”

Ufuoma said he took the phone and switched it off immediately adding that his partner had also gone to another shop to steal phones too.

“We had successfully stolen those phones but suddenly, we saw RRS men chasing us.

“As we were about to mount on our motorcycle, we were double-crossed and arrested,” Augustine added.

Following their confessional statement, they revealed that they had stolen about 70 phones this year and identified their buyer simply as one Alfa who owns a shop at Boundary in Ajegunle.

The owner of the shop, Mr Oluwole Allen, who followed them to the Police’s Headquarters, said that he never had any suspicion that the two suspects were phone thieves when they entered his shop.

Allen said, “The two of them entered with the hope of buying sachet water. I stood up to attend to them unknowingly to me that one of them had stolen my phone.

“The other guy went to another shop to do the same before he was caught in the process but immediately, I looked around to search for my phone and could not find it.

“When we searched both of them, I found my phone with one of them,” the shop owner quipped.

Meanwhile, the suspects have been transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the command for further investigation.