Two entertainers, a musician and a pianist, arrested for alleged robbery have confessed that hunger caused by COVID-19 lockdown pushed them into crime.
The suspects: Chinonso, 25, an Afro hip – hop singer and Victory, 22 , a pianist were arrested by the Rapid Response Squad unit of the Lagos Police Command last week Wednesday in company with five others at their residence on Modupe Young Thomas Estate, Ajah, by the decoy team.
The duo had allegedly on April 10, ordered pay on delivery, an iPhone 11 Pro Max valued at N450,000:00 in an online platform, Jiji.com from their service charge apartment in Ajah. On the receipt of the consignment from a delivery man, Anifowoshe Itunu, Chimelu, the buyer generated a fake alert to the rider first and later, with the connivance of Chinonso escaped from the apartment after they had tied down the despatch rider with a bottle of beer.
The suspects then sold the iPhone 11 Pro Max to a buyer in Ogba, Ikeja for an N350,000:00 transferred into Chinoso’s bank account.
The suspects, who jumped off from the first floor to the ground naked at their apartment into the streets on sighting the police, confessed that the crime was the third time they sold iPhone 11 Pro Max during the COVID – 19 lockdowns, adding that two of the phones were carted online with stolen credit cards.
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According to a Police source, Chinonso fractured his arm and bruised his chin immediately he landed on the floor. He then instantly took to the streets naked before he was arrested and taken to the hospital.
In their confessions, Chinonso and Chimelo, who are regular performers in some Lagos night clubs separately attributed their actions to COVID 19 lockdown stressing that “during the lockdown, there was nothing going on and they did not have anything to eat for two weeks.
Chinos allegedly told the police:
“We were already owing all the store owners in the neighbourhood. Nobody was ready to give us credit anymore. We had to devise a means to survive the lockdown”.
Chinonso, who just changed his stage name from Authority to Happy – Boy said that he joined Chimelu at his Ajah residence in March, his music teacher in Aba, Abia state before he moved to Lagos.
Chimelu, who is popularly called Apostle Swag recently resigned as a Lekki church keyboardist to pursue a career in music, stated that he used to have regular shows in Lagos clubs before the lockdown. He added that the plan of a service charge apartment was to create the impression that they live there in the mind of the despatch rider. The suspects confessed that apart from their musical careers, they also engage in internet fraud.
Exhibits recovered from the suspects include one iPhone 11Pro Max, three laptops, two flash drives, two WiFi connection modems, two memory cards, four SIM cards, one Samsung phone, and one other iPhone.
The suspects have been transferred to Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) for further investigations and prosecution.
Commenting on the development, Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, maintained that the internet is a fertile ground for opportunities but the state command would not allow criminals to use it as a venue to exploit legitimate business owners.
