The goods worth N44 million was stolen from the Apapa Port and was been taken to a warehouse in Ikeja area of the state for onward sales to a ready buyer for N10 Million when eagle-eyed policemen swooped on them.
Out of the 2,800 tins of the infant formula, 2,182 were recovered in a popular street at Ikeja by the policemen led by the Divisional Police Officer, Mr Usman Ndababo.
The goods, as gathered, was cleared from the ports for onward transfer to Nestle office in Sango-Ota. Driver of the truck with an unknown identity was said to had delayed loading the goods in the day time owing to the traffic congestion along Oshodi/Apapa expressway. He, however, decided to load at night but when he arrived for the job, he was shocked to discover that the truck had disappeared from where it was parked.
Unknown to him, his conductor had allegedly conspired with some persons to divert the truck to somewhere else. The bus conductor simply identified as Alloy is currently on the run,while his alleged accomplices are telling the police all they knew about the shady deal.
One of them is Micheal Ndubuisi. The 31-year-old Ebonyi state -born who narrated how he was contacted by Alloy, said, " Alloy called me to get a buyer for auction goods. He told me it was NAN infant formula and I got a ready buyer.
I met him last Tuesday at Apapa, from where he drove the truck out of the port. He was not comfortable on the wheel because he does not know how to drive. I took the steering from him for I also drive trucks and drove it to a warehouse in Ikeja where the buyer told us to drop them.
We left the Port at 9pm and got to Ikeja by 10pm, where we offloaded the goods , I was given the sum of N1.1 million by the buyer which I used for expenses ranging from payment for the truck and the loaders. Alloy never told me they were stolen goods. He only said they were auctioned goods. It was when I was arrested that I got to know it was stolen, " he said.
Asked how much he got at the end of the day, he said , " I got N150 ,000 out of the N1.1 million, I gave Alloy the sum of N350,000 so that he could go away from Lagos". At this point, Crime Alert asked why he had to pay Alloy to leave Lagos when he claimed he never knew they were stolen goods. He simply maintained his stand on being oblivious that the goods were stolen.
Another suspect, Uche Onuaku from Anambra state said, " I lost my job as a trailer driver so, I contacted Michael (the first suspect) to help me get another job. Last week, he asked me to meet him somewhere, where he introduced me to Alloy .
I thought they had found another job for me , only to be told I was to assist them take the goods to Ikeja. I stayed at the back and at the end , I was given N100,000. I went home happy, waiting for the payment of N10 million by the buyer, only to be arrested. Micheal told me the woman will pay on February 19 only for me to be called last Monday to come collect the money without knowing Micheal had been arrested.
Continuing, he said, "I am a hungry man and so I do not have any choice than to accompany him, without bothering to find out if the goods were stolen or not".
But for Antoine Peter, a Bukina Fasso national, he claimed to be innocent of the allegation. Although he admitted to be a mechanical engineer attached to the warehouse in question but denied having anything to do with the offloaded goods.
Explaining, he said, " I just don't understand why I was arrested. Yes, my boss owned the warehouse but he leased part of it to a man when the company folded, who in turn was using it to print polythene bags. I started selling the machines in the company on my boss's instruction.
If anyone wanted to buy anything, I would contact my boss who in turn will come or instruct me to sell it. As such, I only have keys to the portion where our machine are while the other portion was manned by the printer. On the day they came to offload the goods, I had left the warehouse to work for a customer and when it was dark, I left the customer's place and went straight home leaving the warehouse opened. forgetting to lock it.
When I resumed on Monday, I met policemen in the compound who insisted I open the other side used by the printer and I told them I do not have keys to the warehouse. They forced the door opened where they saw the goods.
Quickly, I put a call to my boss who came immediately and when he did, he put a call through to the man he leased the place to, to come but the man did not show up. He simply said he was coming but never did. This was how I was arrested. I honestly did not know how the goods got to the warehouse in the first place", the Bukina Fasso national stated.
But from the statement of the forth suspect, Mrs Bola, who contacted the buyer, it was glaring that the buyer of the stolen goods is the wife of the man the warehouse was leased to.
According to Mrs Bola, " I was contacted by Micheal who told me he had powered milk to sell. So, I contacted a ready buyer. When they brought the
goods, the woman sent a vehicle that trans-loaded it while I followed them to the warehouse. She first gave me the sum of N520,000 to settle the boys and another N1.1 million three days later, promising to pay me the balance on February because she said she expected powered milk instead of the NAN. The woman said her husband owned the warehouse". Asked what the woman's name was, she could not tell.
Presently, the woman in question is at large as well as the conductor identified as Alloy. The Police said they were on their trail . Meanwhile, the recovered goods, as gathered, had been given to the owner.
http://odili.net/news/source/2012/feb/23/314.html
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