Hyacinth Chinweuba
A 33-year old suspected traffic robber, Yinka Thaddeus, has confessed that he was a professional traffic robber, who specialized in training and teaching young boys how to do pickpocketing during traffic in Lagos.
Oriental News Nigeria reports that Thaddeus was among the criminal suspects arrested in a popular hotel in Ajegunle and paraded by the Commissioner of Police at Police headquarters in Ikeja Lagos.
The father of two kids boasted that he had capacity to dispossess passengers at the bus stops during traffic congestion without the victims having knowledge of how the items were lost. He also said he had transferred such skills to young boys in Ajegunle and its environs in Apapa area of Lagos.
“Yes, I mastered how to pick items from owners at bus stops without trace and we know ourselves and code name members as pickers and had been successful in the business for several years” the suspect said.
Thaddeus said he learnt how to be a picker from his late boss and after his death, he took over and started training young boys, who have mastered the skills like him.
He said that he hardly had been caught by the Police because he applied skills he learnt from his late boss.
On how he was arrested, Thaddeus said he had gone out for operation and retired to the hotel, where he lodged before Police raided the place and arrested him with other suspects.
The suspect was among the traffic robbers arrested and the Police also recovered 36 stolen phones during operation in Apapa area of Lagos.
The Police boss, while parading the suspects, said that on 29th June, 2020, following a credible intelligence, operatives from Area B Command, Apapa arrested one chima Christopher ‘m’ 25, of Aiyemiru Street, Okoyo old Ojo Road, Olodi Apapa. The suspect specialized in robbing people of their phones during traffic gridlock.
He said during Investigation which extended to Big Ben Hotel off old Ojo Road Apapa, where three additional suspects were arrested including Thaddeus, Azeez Sulaimon 24; Shakiru Oke 25; and Yusuf Ganiu 25.
They were arrested with 36 different brand of phones suspected to have been stolen from different victims around Mile 2, Oshodi, Ijora, Case Way, Eko bridge and environs.
CP Odumosu said that the suspects will be charged to Court after the conclusion of investigation.