The Operatives of the Lagos State Rapid Response Squad, a unit of the Lagos Police Command have arrested a tricycle rider otherwise known as ‘Keke Maruwa’ after stealing the tricycle over four months ago.
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.
The suspect, Tosin had told Emmanuel that he was hungry and needed to work with Emmanuel’s keke for 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 hired purchase from a micro-finance bank before it was stolen by his friend.
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,
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 recognize his tricycle.
They added that so many stickers had been pasted on the tricycle to make it unrecogniseable.
According to the PPRO, DSP Bala Elkanah, incident like this can be mitigated by commercial riders in the State if only they can desist from exchanging their valuable means of transportation with their colleagues who might not share the same interest with them.
He also advised them to be law abiding while doing their daily business.
The case has been transferred to the ‘AREA G’ Police command where the matter was earlier reported for further investigations.
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