The Lagos State Police Command has arrested two
suspects, who allegedly specialised in changing the expiring date on tyres and
chassis numbers of vehicles.
The suspects, Samuel Obi, 19 and Izuchukwu Iwueze,
25, were alleged to have been caught right in the act at the Ladipo Auto Market
last week Thursday.
It was alleged that Obi, a tyre dealer in the market,
always sent expired tyres to his accomplice Iwueze, whose job is to change dates
of the tyres with a machine. These expired tyres, with their new dates, are
sold to unsuspecting members of the public.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police, in charge of the
State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Yaba, Panti, Mr. Bolaji Salami,
confirmed the arrest of the suspects.
He said: “We acted on tip off about the activities
of the suspects. We stormed their hideout and recovered some tyres. They have
changed the expired dates.”
Iwueze said that he was introduced to the business
in November 2016 by one of his friends, who are now at large.
He said: “Some motorists always bring the expired
tyres to us. They requested that the date should be changed for them, because
Road Safety Officials were troubling them as a result of the date. We can
change dates from 2014 to 2016 within 10 to 20 minutes. Sometimes, cart pushers
also bring expired tyres to us to change the date for them. We normally charge
between N300 to N500 to change the dates, we worked on about fifteen tyres
daily.”
Iwueze added that he earns at least N2, 000 daily,
depending on the numbers of tyres.
Obi, however denied his involvement in the crime,
claiming that he was arrested through one of his boys, whom he sent to collect
money from the suspect.
Obi said: “I sent my boy to collect N1, 000
from Iwueze. While at his shop, he met
the policemen who arrested him for being part of the deal. I was therefore
asked to come to my friend’s shop where I was also arrested.”
The DCP said the suspects would be charged to court
soon.
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