One of the two suspects arrested by the operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command has disclosed that he and over 50 teenagers in Oshodi survive by stealing and dispossessing passers-by of their phones and other valuables.
The suspect, Yusuph Ahmed, 19, from Offa, Kwara State according to a press statement by the RRS disclosed this to interrogators at the Squad’s headquarters in Alausa, Ikeja on Friday afternoon.
Ahmed, who was arrested in Oshodi on Friday after dispossessing a passenger of his phone, stated that he along with over 50 teenagers sleep in Oshodi under bridge and that it is from here they eke out a living by stealing phones and robbing passers-by of the valuables.
Ahmed, who has been sleeping under Oshodi Bridge since he was 13, stressed that even though he doesn't follow those who rob amongst them out all the time, he knows all of them.
“I sleep in Oshodi Under Bridge. We are like 50 or 60 teenagers sleeping there. The adults sleep in Ori – Pako. I was 13 years old when I started sleeping there. I keep my cloth there.
“I sleep around 8:00 p.m. or 9:00 p.m. There are some of us who do not sleep at all. They are the ones that alert us whenever the police is around.
“There are equally those who do not sleep because they go from one place to the other in Oshodi to rob. They rob late at night and very early in the morning.
“After the death of my mother, my father abandoned us.
He stopped taking care of us leaving us to fend for ourselves.
“Even the school, he stopped paying the monthly N600. I had to resort to packing granite to pay the monthly N600 for school fee.
“At a point, I couldn’t cope with the fee. I was just 12. I dropped out and I decided to run to Lagos. Since then, Oshodi Under Bridge has been my home.
“Any phone I stole, I sell to Mohammed or Kudus. They are beggars in Oshodi. They buy most of the stolen phones from us”, he stated.
However, the stolen phone, a Tecno Y6, was recovered from Ahmed’s brother.
The second suspect, Yusuph Agbaje, 25, from Oyo State, was arrested in Agege for stealing a Blackberry curve from a commuter.
The suspects have been transferred to the Lagos State Task-force.
The Nation
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