I joined in stealing 59 laptops because of Xmass--Suspect

A 48-year-old man, Mr. Tunde Olanrewaju, a suspected thief has told detectives  attached to Ogun state Police command that he went into the crime in order to raise money for the fast approaching Christmas celebration.

Olarenwaju who was arrested alongside four others, went to Egba Obafemi Community Grammar School, in Obafemi Owode Local Government Area, and carted away 59 laptops meant for students.

The other suspects arrested alongside Olarenwaju are Sunday Oluwafemi[48], Adamu Saheed [45] Olatunji Olanipekun[40]and Gbotemi Ojo[46]

It was gathered that Olarenwaju and Ojo broke into the School, stole the laptops and successfully moved them. Shola and Olatunji were going to board a bus to Ibadan with some of the laptops when some policemen acting on instinct arrested them.

Olarenwaju said: I was the one who brought the boys that loaded the stolen laptops into the pick up van in the school premises. I used to make soap in Ibadan, but because of low patronage i stopped the business. I was thinking of what next to do when Ojo approached me; he said i should assist him to organize men who would help him to load and offload goods.

I wouldn't have done it but Christmas is fast approaching and i don't have money. Olarenwaju ran from pillar to post to make sure he was able to get the men. On the day that Ojo was supposed to leave with the men to the school, he asked Olarenwaju to join them so that he would make additional money to the one he would be paid for assembling the men.

Olarenwaju said: It was due to greed that made me go with them. It was when we were leaving, after loading the laptops that the policemen arrested us. They arrested us because we couldn't explain where or how we got the goods.

Narrating how the idea of stealing from the secondary school was incubated and hatched, Ojo explained that there was a time he needed to buy cheap cow and someone directed him to Owode. He said that a security guard in the school, one Mr. Saheed, sold the idea of stealing the laptops to him. Ojo said: Two weeks after we bought the cow, i went back to the school to survey it with the help of Saheed. I returned two months later with some guys who assisted me to move the laptops."

Recounting how Saheed approached him, Ojo said: After buying the cow, er were about to leave when Saheed approached me. He said that i should give him money, i gave him N1000,000. It was then he introduced the deal to me. Before we departed, he pointed to a satellite dish on the school premises and told me that we could sell it. I declined. I told him that my vehicle couldn't carry it.

Saheed told me that there are some other things one could steal and sell in the school. After two months, i came back with some people and stole the laptops from the school. We have succeeded in taking the laptops to Ibadan and handed them over to a friend to dispose of them.

We were yet to sell to sell them when Policemen came and arrested me. My arrest led to the arrest of other suspects connected to the crime. I totally regret my action, it was greed that brought me this shame. I inherited a very large farm from my late father, but the money i made from kola and kola nuts alone, is more than what money i would have made from the laptops.

Saheed denied introducing the deal to Ojo. He insisted he had never set his eyes on Ojo before their arrest. Saheed said: My family and i were sleeping when the robbers came into the school about 11:pm; they tied me with a rope and blindfolded me before going into the hall where the laptops were kept. While i was still on the ground, i overheard someone calling another person on phone and directing him on how he could get entrance into the compound..

It was a policemen from Obafemi Owode Police station that untied me in the morning. After a few days, the police invited me to the station to come and identify some of the suspects in connection with the robbery. I was able to identify them when i got to the station, but i was surprised when the police came to arrest me for a crime i didn't commit. 

Mr. Oluwafemi, the engineer who assisted the robbers in removing the inscriptions on the laptops, claimed they brought the laptops to him as auctioned goods. He made it clear that he didn't know the laptops were stolen ones actually.