My Parents Must Not Know I Stole 70 Mobile Phones This Year - School Dropout

A mobile phone thief, who was arrested with his accomplice, has pleaded with the Police in Lagos that his parents must not know that he was engaged in stealing. The thieves, Ufoma Asakpa, 22, and Augustine Omedo, 20, have confessed to the crime after their arrest with both accusing each other of leading one another into the act.

Vanguard reports that the operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of Lagos State Police Command that apprehended them alleged that they specialised in stealing handsets and valuable items. The Police said the suspects, who burgle shops of innocent members of public at Abule-Oja in Yaba, were arrested by the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command on Oct. 13.

One of them, who hail from Ndokwa Local Government Area in Delta State, told NAN that his parents must not know that he was caught for stealing. In his confessional statement, he said: “I was a secondary school dropout. I was unable to proceed to senior classes after I failed Junior WAEC.

“My parents took me to my brother’s shop to learn how to repair generators but I couldn’t endure the period of apprenticeship. “While looking for ways to earn quick money, I met my partner who introduced me to stealing. I joined him about 10 months ago and the police never caught us. “In fact, my parents must not know that I am a thief because I leave home every day as if I was going to work.

“I have regretted my actions for taking to stealing for survival. It is the devil that pushed me into it,’’ he said. His accomplice, who lives at number 10, Kehinde Str, Ajegunle, Lagos, regretted that bad friendship lured him into stealing. “When I entered the shop pretending to buy a sachet of water to cook rice, I saw a phone charging in that shop.

“I took the phone and switched it off immediately. My partner had also gone to another shop to steal phones too. “We had successfully stolen those phones but suddenly, we saw RRS men chasing us. “As we were about to mount on our motorcycle, we were crossed and arrested,’’ he said in his confessional statement.

The two suspects revealed that they had stolen about 70 phones this year and identified their buyer simply as Alfa who owns a shop at Boundary in Ajegunle. The owner of the shop, Mr Oluwole Allen, who followed them to the Police’s Headquarters, said that he never had any inkling that the two suspects were phone thieves when they entered his shop.