Stolen phone gives car snatchers away

Demodia

Detectives attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, Lagos, have used a stolen phone to track and arrest a suspected armed robber in Benin, Edo State.
The phone was said to have been stolen after the owner, Alhaji Babangida Isah, was attacked around Dopemu area of Lagos and his Toyota Corolla car snatched at gunpoint. Isah reported the incident to the police in Lagos.
SARS operatives, working with the victim’s network provider, allegedly traced the phone to one Evans Demodia, a 27-year-old mechanic, working and residing in Benin, Edo State. He was arrested on May, 21, 2015.
A police source told Sunday Telegraph that during interrogation, Demodia, 27, told detectives that one Benson Obode usually brought snatched cars to him to sell. The source said: “The breakthrough came through the stolen phone. We followed the trail down to Benin, as we searched for the snatched Toyota Corolla of the victim. We trailed the phone to Demodia, an auto mechanic at his workshop at No 33, Auchi Road, Benin.
He was also in possession of a snatched Toyota Camry and Honda CRV. The Camry belongs to one Mr. Lawrence Oaikhena and was snatched at gunpoint. The robbers used a white coloured Peugeot 307 car, to double-cross Oaikhena before snatching his car.” Demodia, a father of four, denied being a robber but admitted to being a receiver of stolen cars. He also confessed that all cars were given to him by Obode.
He said: “Obode usually supplied the cars to me. I took them to his house, but we didn’t meet him. Police invited his landlord. A few hours later, Obode was brought into my cell. His face was bloodied. He told me that some vigilance operatives arrested him with a Peugeot 307 and beat him when he attempted to escape.
“He said his landlord’s wife alerted the vigilance men when she saw him coming into the compound. He said he was about to flee when the woman raised the alarm and an angry mob chased him. They beat him up and handed him to the vigilantes who also manhandled him.
On our way to Lagos, Obode fell sick and the policemen took him to a hospital. I’ve not seen him since then.” Recalling how he started receiving stolen cars, Demodia said he was in his workshop one day when Obode and one Chief Osama came to meet him. He claimed that they convinced him to join their gang. He added: “I joined because there was a huge profit in the business.
Initially, Obode told me that he was a car dealer. He said he was into buying of cars from overseas and needed someone to assist him in selling them.”
Demodia said he later discovered that Obode was a car snatcher. He said: “I deal in Toyota products, so I told him that I needed Toyota cars. I paid him N400, 000 for the Toyota Corolla he brought. I sold it to a woman for N500, 000. I also bought a Toyota Camry from him for N350, 000 and sold it for N400, 000.
I also received two other cars which I was yet to sell before the police arrested me.” A police source said: “A team of SARS men were alerted by the vigilante men and the landlord’s wife. The team rushed down to the scene and took him to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Benin.
He repeatedly complained of pains and was taken to the hospital, where he died. Obode’s corpse was deposited at General Hospital, Benin, while an autopsy paper was prepared and submitted. “Investigations have showed that Obode was a robber. Demodia was the receiver of the vehicles Obode used to snatch. Demodia is in SARS custody.
Two snatched cars – a Toyota Camry and Toyota Corolla – were recovered and handed over to the owners.” Another police source said: “When the police team investigating the death of Obode met the landlord’s wife, she admitted to have alerted the vigilantes. She also confirmed that a crowd gathered during the arrest.
She refused to give the names of the people who assisted her in arresting Obode because she didn’t want them to be arrested for questioning over the beating of the suspect.” The team that trailed Demodia and Obode to Benin has been described as a ‘crack team.’ They are best known for locating and arresting elusive suspects.
It was gathered that the team that trailed and arrested Demodia and Obode were behind the arrest of the Lekki and Ikorodu bank robbers; the kidnappers of the mother of former finance minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; the kidnappers that killed a former deputy governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chudi Nwike; as well as the gang that seized the wife of a serving Supreme Court Justice and collected a ransom.
The team also aided the arrest of the Lagos nanny who kidnapped three young children of the Orekoya family.