The Ogun State Police Command has recovered a Scania truck and has begun a manhunt to fish out two fleeing suspects for allegedly stealing a vehicle loaded with aluminium and iron scraps from Owode Onirin, Lagos.
PUNCH Metro gathered from a police source that, on Tuesday, a complainant identified as Akeem Bashiru, a scrap dealer, reported that two men tried to sell him iron scraps worth N10.3m in a Scania truck with the registration number (JJJ 288 XX). Suspecting theft due to their rush to collect a payment, he said he cleverly directed them to a nearby Chinese company, instructing the manager not to pay until the source of the goods was verified.
“At about 8:00 am on November 5, 2024, I was in my shop at Bara Village when two men brought a load of iron scraps for sale in a Scania truck motor vector with the registration number (JJJ 288 XX), I suspected that the goods were stolen because they were in a rush to collect their money which was bargained at N10,326,000.00,” the source said.
Akeem was said to have disclosed that once he realised they might be thieves, he took the suspects to a Chinese company to pin down their goods until he could verify the true owner of the goods.
“When I noticed they were thieves, I took them to a nearby Chinese company at Sagamu so that the goods could be pinned down there. I told the manager of the company not to pay them for the goods until we knew who had the goods. Since then, the two men have been pressuring me to pay for the goods and tried to call the Chinese company on the phone but they did not come by themselves.”
Our source revealed that the complainant then discovered during his investigation that the truck was stolen from Owode Onirin, Lagos, belonging to a man identified as Adesipe Jimoh and abandoned the empty truck at Ibafo Township.
“I later found out that they stole the Scania truck and goods from Owode-Onirin, Lagos state and the goods belonged to one man, identified as Adesipe Jimoh. The culprits abandoned the stolen vehicle at Ibafo Township beside the road.”
PUNCH Metro further gathered that operatives of the Owode Egba police Division had begun to search for the whereabouts of the fleeing suspect.
The state police spokesperson, Omolola Odutola, informed our correspondent on Thursday that the vehicle had been recovered and efforts to track down the vehicle and the fleeing suspect were ongoing.
“On receiving this report, detectives visited the scene at Ibafo where the vehicle was abandoned. They recovered the vehicle, a Scania truck with the registration number (JJJ 288 XX), and brought it to the station. Efforts to track down and arrest the fleeing suspects, and to recover the goods taken to the Chinese company are underway.”
“The case is currently under investigation,” she added.
PUNCH Metro reports that the Ogun State Police Command, on July 3, 2024, recovered a black Nissan Pathfinder Jeep which had been converted into a pickup van by its owner from two suspected car thieves, Adebayo Abosede and Modupe Obadimu, in the Lafenwa area of the state.
