° It takes 4 minutes to steal vehicle brain box -Suspect
Rapid Response Squad ( RRS ) a unit of the Lagos State Police Command, has arrested two suspects, who specialised in vandalising vehicles and stealing their brain boxes. The suspects, Sodiq Musa, 28, and Saidu Atiku, 34, were arrested at 27, Awolowo Road, Ikeja, with three Toyota vehicle brain boxes while Ridwan Adamu, escaped with the fourth brain box. One of the suspects, Sodiq claimed he was a graduate of Political Science from one of the Nigerian Universities before he came to Lagos in 2017 in search of greener pasture.
“I worked in Lagos preparing barbecue in hotels and event centres before I met Ridwan ,who introduced me to brain box theft. “We use ‘magic stone’ that is, vehicle spark plug to break vehicle windows without attracting attention. It takes two minutes to loose a Toyota Hiace bus brain box and four minutes to loose a Toyota Hilux box.
“The spark plug reduces the noise and effects quick break of any vehicle window and we tie the plug in a handkerchief in a situation where we have multiple vehicles to work on.”
In his confessional statement to the RRS operatives, Sodiq told the officers that Saidu was a security guard who works for a company located on that street where they were arrested and had earlier in the day called Ridwan, who is the leader of the gang to come and feast on vehicles belonging to their company which were parked outside the company’s premises .
On getting the hint, Ridwan and Sodiq set for action and got to the venue around 1:00 a.m. They broke into two Toyota Hiace and two Toyota Hilux belonging to the company who employed Saidu as night guard, stealing their brain boxes before another security guard nearby ,raised the alarm and Sodiq was caught with three boxes while Ridwan fled with one.
Sodiq was thereafter, taken to RRS Headquarters, where he confessed how Saidu was involved in the robbery
“We specialised in stealing Toyota brain boxes ,because they fetch good money in the market. The demand for them are higher than any other brand. For example, we were selling Toyota Hiace brain box for N40,000 while that of Toyota Hilux goes for N20,000 ”.
“Ridwan was the one who connected with the buyers of the brain boxes. He said the buyers were from the popular Ladipo ,Oshodi spare part market in Lagos. We always meet the buyers outside the market where we exchange our loots for cash.
They usually pay in cash and will never wait more than two minutes as we already have an understanding on the prices”. “Ridwan was giving me 40% of whatever we made from the sale of our loots. He has never disclosed where we were to carry out operations, because he is my boss.
Our target areas were usually night clubs where people come with different types of vehicles. We strike around 1:00 a.m. – 2:00 a.m. when most of the clubbers would have started enjoying themselves”.
The suspect also confessed to have stolen two boxes at a popular night club in Lekki, another at Ogunlana Drive and Allen Avenue, Ikeja. All these areas house popular night clubs and joints in Lagos. The Commissioner of Police, CP Zubairu Muazu,has ordered the transfer of the case to State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department ( SCiID ) , Panti.
He advised night clubbers in the State to be extra careful while enjoying themselves and leaving their vehicles parked where it is not safe.
