A suspected pick-pocket at the Computer Village in Ikeja, Lagos, was on Thursday arrested after he had robbed a policeman.
The suspect identified as 32-year-old Idowu Nojeem, had dipped his hand into the pocket of the policeman, an operative of the Lagos State Rapid Response Squad (RSS), and picked the latter’s Techno Y5 phone, who soon noticed that his phone was missing.
The operative, who was on a surveillance mission around Ikeja Under-bridge, immediately pursued the suspect and caught up with him.
But the suspect refused to return the phone and started struggling with the policeman. It took the joint efforts of some other policemen, who were called in, to arrest the suspect.
He was later taken by the operatives to where their patrol van was stationed at the Ikeja Under-bridge.
Nojeem was later identified by another victim, Nneka Adoh, whom he had allegedly robbed on the same spot a few hours before the encounter with the police.
Adoh said: “I was trying to board a bus to Ogba when I sighted three guys including the suspect walking beside me. The suspect was drawing my bag from behind but I held my bag tight with me.
“I didn’t know he used a razor blade to cut the bag and took my two mobile phones. Later when I turned and checked my bag, my phones were gone.
“A passer-by, who saw the suspect when he was removing my phones, pointed him out for stealing my phones. Although I saw the two phones with him from afar, I was too afraid to confront him.
“But while I was still looking for help, I saw a crowd at the under-bridge looking at somebody. When I moved closer to know what was going on, I saw the same man being handcuffed by the police for stealing an RRS operative’s phone.”
Confirming the arrest of the suspect, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, said efforts were on to arrest Nojeem’s accomplices.
