A 29-year-old Bolt driver identified as Jeremiah Adeniran has been arrested for allegedly robbing some of his passengers in Lagos state.
The State Police Command paraded him at its head office in Ikeja on Friday, where he confessed to the crime, stating that the hike in fuel prices pushed him into the armed robbery.
Adeniran, in an interview with journalists said he was a beginner who got into the life of crime to the effect of subsidy removal. He also revealed his two other accomplices always stayed on the road to carry out the robbery.
“Before, I could do 15 trips a day, but after the rise in fuel prices, my business was no longer moving as I wanted, so I ventured into robbery,” he said.
The suspect further claimed that he had only robbed his passengers on three occasions since he started last month. He said that he was arrested on Saturday when one of the victims sighted him and raised an alarm.
“On Saturday morning, I entered a shop, and I saw the lady I picked up and robbed a day before. She instantly recognised me because I was not putting on a nose mask. She raised the alarm, and that was how I was arrested and taken to Ikotun police station,” he said.
Meanwhile in another news…
A middle-aged farmer, Gbenga Akintola has been convicted and sentenced to 21 years imprisonment for robbery in Ondo state.
A High Court sitting in Akure, Ondo found him guilty after he was arraigned on a five-count charge of conspiracy to commit a felony, including armed robbery.
The convict, from Ondo East Local Council Area of the state, was said to have robbed his victim, Chidinma, of her Itel phone valued at N20,000 and the sum of N150 in her bag, and one Rufus Rhoda of her Tecno phone valued at N6,500 and another Techo K-7 phone valued at N35,000 and the sum of N4,500.
Akintola and another person still at large committed the crime between August and October 2021, around Oke-Olifi via Itanla Junction, Ondo town, according to the charge sheet.
He was said to have also robbed another victim, Ayodeji Oluwayemisi, of her bag, an iPhone valued at N45,00, and N2,800 while armed with a cutlass and other offensive weapons.
The prosecutor, Inspector Alako Abdulahi, told the court that operatives of Amotekun Corps brought the defendant to the police station on October 19, 2021, after he was arrested with four mobile phones, a motorcycle, a bag, and a small purse, which had all been recovered from him.
Abdullahi added that the defendant stated that the items found on him were handed to him by a man called Sunday Igbo.
However, while testifying before the court, one of the victims, Rufus Rhoda stated that she and Chidinma were on their way to church when the defendant came out of the bush, masked with a cap and armed with a cutlass.
Delivering judgement, Justice W. R. Olamide sentenced the defendant to seven years imprisonment for conspiracy and 21 years imprisonment for robbery, which will run concurrently.
