Lagos Police Arrest Man Four Months After Stealing Tricycle

Operatives of the Lagos State Rapid Response Squad (RRS), a unit of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested a tricycle rider after stealing the tricycle over four months ago.

The suspect, Tosin Abolaji, 25-year-old, was arrested in Ikeja where he was using the stolen ‘keke’ for transport business.

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The ‘Keke’ was given to him by one Emmanuel sometimes in April 2019 to enable him raise some funds to cater for his family.

According to sources close to both parties, ‘Keke’ operators always engage themselves in shift ride, where a rider after working for hours and wish to rest would hand over his ‘Keke’ to another rider on an agreed time to return the keke back to the owner.

Tosin, according to the RRS, had told Emmanuel that he was hungry and needed to work with Emmanuel’s keke for a few hours. Unknown to Emmanuel who thought he was helping, Tosin had an ulterior motive of stealing the newly bought ‘Keke’.

Emmanuel, narating his ordeal after the ‘Keke’ was recovered by police, stated that he got the tricycle on hire purchase from a microfinance bank before it was stolen by his friend.

“I was arrested by the bank after I could not meet up with the return payment plan agreement I had with the bank. I begged the bank to please allow me talk to my colleagues who can assist me in getting a keke which I can be riding to pay back the debt while I continue to search every nooks and cranny,” Emmanuel said.

“I have searched almost the whole of Lagos tricycle garages for my ‘keke’, begged all other friends in the neighbourhood maybe they can help me with Tosin’s whereabouts but I was told he had cut contact with everybody in the area after the incident.

It was during the search that I learnt Tosin was a thief as colleagues who knew him well also shared their experiences about him, collecting colleagues’ ‘Keke’ and absconding with it for days without knowledge of the owners.”

He added: “After four months of rigorous search for my ‘Keke’, a good Samaritan who saw Tosin around Ikeja hinted me. I quickly alerted the police and they arrested him and recovered my tricycle.”

Sources said that after the recovery, it was discovered Tosin had changed so many things in the ‘keke’ making it difficult for the owner to recognise his tricycle. They added that so many stickers had been pasted on the tricycle to make it unrecognisable.