Stealing from drunks in clubs lucrative, says ex-butcher

A 28-year-old meat seller, Nathaniel Peters, arrested at the Abule-Egba area of Lagos State, has told operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) in Lagos that it was more lucrative to steal from drunks who frequent clubs, than selling meat. Peters, who confessed that he used to steal from drunken club goers, admitted targeting phones, purse, gold rings and neck laces every Saturday morning. The suspect was arrested during a search for a suspected robber, who stabbed a lady after dispossessing her of her mobile phone. Peters, who was returning from a popular night club in Ikeja about 5a.m. where he had gone to operate, was sighted running away.

The RRS operatives, thinking he was the person they were hunting, pursued and arrested him. Some RRS officers, stationed near Abule-Egba roundabout, heard the scream of a lady shouting for help about 5:20a.m. on that fateful Saturday. When Peters was eventually arrested, the operatives found stolen laptop, three mobile phones and two wristwatches on him.
The lady, who was stabbed and robbed, insisted that it wasn’t Peters that attacked and robbed her. On further interrogation, Peters disclosed that he was coming from a night club, somewhere around Ikeja where he had dispossessed club goers of the laptop, phones and wristwatches.

The suspect added that he had been visiting night clubs particularly those in Ikeja to break into parked vehicles and rob sleeping and drunk clubbers of their valuables. He said: “I have been in this business since 2016. My friend, Sheriff, introduced me to it. We were both butchers at the Agege Abattoir.
At a point, Sheriff ran away after he absconded with his master’s N170,000. I ran into him a few months later and he invited me to join him to go to night clubs in the metropolis to rob clubbers. He told me it was very lucrative. I have discovered too that it is better than my job as a butcher at the Abattoir. “We start operation about 3:30a.m., when club activities are winding down and clubbers are beginning to doze off.

We rob those standing alone, sleeping in cars and those that are drunk. We take their valuables. We break into cars too. When clubbers are drunk, they hardly feel our hands removing their valuables from their pockets and bodies. We have a style of removing their gold rings while they are asleep. “We sell the valuables to a friend, who takes them to Ghana to resell. But now, I operate alone.” The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Chike Oti, said that the Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, had directed that the suspect be transferred to Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) for more investigations.
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