Police recover N15m fuel dispensing machines

Operatives attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Zone II, Onikan, Lagos State, have arrested two suspects for receiving stolen goods valued at over N15 million from suspected robbers.

The suspects, James Adeoba and Emeka Philip were trailed to three states by the police before they were nabbed and the stolen items recovered from them.

The duo had however said they didn’t know they items were stolen ones.

A police source said: “Police trailed the suspects to Kwara, Taraba and Yola states before they could be located and arrested. Police recovered 23 fuel pumping machines from them, valued at over N15m. Four generating sets were also recovered from them. We believe that the suspects belong to different robbery gangs.”

The suspects came under the raider of the police, after the officer in charge of SARS, Zone II, Mr. Peter Gana, got a tip off about their activities.

Gana was said to have drafted two teams to follow up the case.

While he was in charge of one of the teams, Inspector Sunday Mohammed was in charge of the second one. Their job description was for one team to go after the robbers that sold the stolen goods, while the other would go for those who bought the stolen items.

The robbers were finally traced to Lagos SARS, Ikeja, where they had already been arrested by the Officer in charge of SARS, Abba Kyarri and his men.

The second team traversed Kwara, Yola and Taraba states before they got Philip and Adeoba.

Adeoba was arrested in Kwara State and confessed to how some of the goods came to be in his possession. His confession was used to go after and arrest Philip. Following Philip’s confession, police team went to Jalingo and Yola state where some of the stolen goods were recovered.

Philip said: “I never knew that the goods were stolen. I thought it would be a good business to buy and resell them. I bought the generating set each at N250, 000. But the real price in market is N500, 000.”

Recalling how he met the suspected robbers that sold the items to him, Philip said: “I met them in Ibadan. I had gone there to see about my generator repairing business. When Adeoba and I was about to purchase the generators, the sellers told us that the goods were sent to them by their brothers in Germany. We didn’t know they were stolen items.”
It was learned that Gana has vowed to leave no stone unturned to ensure that criminals operating in Lagos and Ogun states no longer continue to have a tea party.