- Police retrieve 50 stolen motorbikes from syndicate
The gang was smashed after it attacked one Usman Faruk, 28, a commercial bike rider, plying Ebute-Metta/Oyingbo routes. Faruk returned from hospital to narrate how his passenger drugged, attacked and robbed him of his motorbike. According to Faruk, the passenger, Usman Mohammed, whom he picked on that fateful day, stuffed a handkerchief into his nostrils from behind. He soon started feeling dizzy.
Before Faruk knew what was happening, the passenger allegedly further hit his head with a rod; he fell down. He noticed his passenger and other men taking away his motorbike, but he was too weak to raise a finger to stop them.
He lost consciousness. He woke up to find himself in a hospital. When he was discharged, he went to report the incident at the police station. During police investigation, Faruk was able to identity Usman as one of the men that took his motorbike after he fell to the ground and lost consciousness.
Usman was used as bait to catch other suspects, while one of the suspects, identified as Ibrahim, remains at large. Justine Ikechukwu, 32, is the man who allegedly used to assist the syndicate in creating new particulars for the stolen motorbikes. Trying to exonerate himself from the crime, Ikechukwu, a mechanic at Ebute-Metta, said: “I was on my own, minding my business, when a Hausa man, Ibrahim, brought a motorbike to me. He said the particulars of the motorbike fell into water. He said he needed new particulars and new invoice for the motorbike.
I told him that he should go to people that sell motorbikes. The normal thing was for him to go to police and report that his particulars fell into water, the police would give him police report, so that new particulars would be given to him.”
Although Ikechukwu knew Ibrahim ought to go and get a police report, he decided to prepare new particulars and invoice for him anyway.
Ikechukwu said he decided to do so because he noticed that, ‘ truly, water damaged the former invoice and particulars.” Ikechukwu added: “I assisted him to make a new invoice. I also did new plate number. I collected only N3000 from him to prepare the new invoice and number plate. I gave the number plate job to people who specialised in that. This is the second time Ibrahim
would be bringing such work to me.”Policemen who stormed Ikechukwu’s home, said they retrieved 50 motorbikes. But the suspect insisted police were lying. He said: “ How could police say I had done such work for 50 people? It’s not true. It’s also not true that they retrieved 50 motorbikes from my house. They didn’t come to my house to arrest me; they came to my shop.”
Remembering how he was robbed of his motorbike, Faruk said: “ I picked a passenger from Jibowu to Health Centre Oyigbo. He used a handkerchief that contained a substance and stuffed it into my nostrils from behind. I became dizzy and weak. He used a rod to hit me on the head. I fell down. He carried my motorbike away. I was watching him, but I couldn’t do anything to stop him. I was weak.”
When Faruk regained consciousness in a hospital, he went to the State Criminal Investigations Department(SCID), Panti, Yaba, to lodge a complaint. Police followed Faruk to Apapa Road, where he identified Usman as one of those that took his motorbike. He said: “ I identified Usman Mohammed as the man that hit my head with a rod and stole my motorbike.” Usman, however denied stealing Faruk’s motorbike.
According to Usman, he only took Faruk to the hospital when he found him lying unconscious by the road side. He said he was in the company of two other men when they saw Faruk. Usman said: “You can ask these two men. When we saw him, he was lying on the ground. We decided to help him. I thought he was knocked down by a tricycle or a vehicle.
We carried him to hospital. I took the motorbike to a friend’s house. I later gave it to another guy, to give it to him after he regains consciousness. I didn’t know what happened after that until police came to arrest me.” One of the men, who were with Usman on the day they allegedly found Faruk lying unconscious by the roadside, is Liasu Mohammed. Corroborating Usman’s story, Liasu said: “We only assisted him.
We were coming from Sabo when we saw him. He looked like he had an accident. The motorbike was there beside him. There was a crowd. We put him on a motorbike and took him to hospital.
As we took him to hospital, one of our friends followed us with the motorbike. I told him to go and give the motorbike to Ibrahim, at my shop to keep. The idea was that when he regains consciousness, we would give him his motorbike. When he got well, I went to look for Ibrahim, to collect the motorbike, but I couldn’t find him. I have been searching for him since then.
When police came, I took them to where Ibrahim resides. They couldn’t find Ibrahim, but they saw two motorbikes.” The police explained that the receiver of the stolen motorbike, was the elusive Ibrahim.
Police said that the men sold the motorbike to Ibrahim for N110, 000. The police said: “Ikechukwu used to issue fake receipts and number plates. He can prepare and issue such documents within 30 minutes.
He would prepare invoice. They claimed that they took the victim to the hospital, but it was actually a Good Samaritan that took him to hospital. The victim’s brother was alerted and he went to the hospital to pay the medical bill and discharged his brother.”http://newtelegraphonline.com/passenger-drugged-me-stole-my-motorbike/
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