Confession of suspected receiver of stolen cars – Custom officer sold the vehicles to me.

Last week, men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Lagos State Police Command arrested a suspected receiver of stolen cars, recovering nine vehicles in the suspect’s Lape phase II, abode in Ibeju Lekki area of Lagos.
The suspect, Israel Ubatuegwu was reportedly arrested in his attempt to drive a suspected stolen Toyota Corolla, parked in a hideout, when SARS men led by the officer-in-charge, Mr Abba Kyari, swopped on him.
The suspect shocked detectives when he claimed that one Festus fooled him after he allowed him(Festus) use his compound as garage where the vehicles were kept. He also denied ever taking part in any of the robbery operations.
Few days later, his confessional statement led to the arrest of another suspected member of the gang in whose custody, twelve exotic Toyota Camry cars were recovered. On inspection, operatives of SARS discovered that the recovered vehicles had been tampered with. For instance, most of the chassis numbers usually found close to the car steering were discovered to have been removed. Also the chassis numbers were discovered not to tally with the original plate numbers issued on receipt.
To the astonishment of the policemen, it was also discovered that all the recovered vehicles were registered in the suspect’s name. Again, the vehicles were discovered to have been sprayed with colours different from their original ones, apparently to prevent their owners from identifying them.
However, in this interview with Crime Alert, the 43-year-old suspect, Mr Bolaji Owolabi, like the first suspect, Israel, denied culpability in the robbery, claiming he bought the vehicles from the same man Israel earlier mentioned in his confessional statement. He also revealed that the man they alleged sold the cars to them is a Custom officer.
According to the second suspect who hails from Ogun state, “ I met Festus two years ago and in the course of our discussion, he told me he was a Custom officer and was in-charge of auctioning cars. That was how I started buying the cars from him since 2009”. But asked why the cars were all Totoya Corolla product, he replied, “ that is what my customers like. He usually sold them to me for N850,000 or N900,000 and I resell for N1 million or N1.2million. I have no shop. What I do is that whenever any customer wanted a car, I would contact the custom officer who will bring the vehicles to me. He never allowed me buy any of the cars on credit, saying his Comptroller frowned at that”.
Asked whether he never at any point suspected the cars were stolen, he responded, “ It was just this year that I noticed that the number engraved in one of the cars was different from that on the plate. And when I asked, he told me it was a mistake. I also noticed that they usually sprayed all the cars and when I asked again, he said it was because they were for auctioning and that since it was being sold to members of the public , it was necessary to change the colours.
If I knew they were stolen, I would not have sold them to people close to me. It was until I was arrested that I got to know the cars were stolen. I swear to God the cars were sold to me by a Custom officer”. He could not, however, state the rank of Festus, the alleged custom officer nor his office saying “ he simply told me his office was in Ikeja and he usually brought the vehicles himself”.
Plate numbers of vehicles recovered from him, are; FB 695 LSR, BT 207 EPE<BP 657 EPE, BT 244 BDG, BU 884 EPE, BR 911 EPE, BU 256 EPE, FS 443 LND, BG 169, EL 272 GGE, BU 245 EPE, FB 735 KRD and MR 595 AAA.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Samuel Jinadu who paraded the suspect before newsmen, explained that most of the cars were usually snatched from where they were parked. The robbers, he said, would break the small glass by the driver’s side, from where they would open the cars and tamper with the ignition before driving them away. He said efforts were still on to arrest Festus, the suspected custom officer, and advised members of the public whose Toyota Corolla vehicles were snatched between 2009 and now, to contact the Officer-In-Charge of SARS, to identify their vehicles, with proof of ownership.

this man is just a born thief.Customs officials can only ever sell an unlicensed vehicle .

Wow.

MrPrsdent:

this man is just a born thief.Customs officials can only ever sell an unlicensed vehicle .

All custom officers are thieves!

Our Country Needs Serious Delieverance From Spirit Of Stealing,

Poor Men Steals, Rich Men Likewise Steal Despite Their Weathy,

From The First Citizen To The Last. Needs Pure Delieverance.

I WONDERED WHY WE PAY A DEAF EAR TO AS HOW COME CUSTOMS BECOMES RICH OVER NIGHT IT IS NOT FROM ALL THESE ILLEGAL MEANS ? IT IS JUST TO ANSWER THE QUESTION

Customs are not straight forward people.
Those guys shld be tortured very well, they will identify their accomplice.
Bag guys,

Custom officers dont have a good reputation,anywayz.

we have to pay so much insurance here because Naija, arab, indian and parkistani thieves steal high-end Cadillac, BMW, Benz, Toyota Jeeps and shipe them home n these vehicles r then replaced by insurance companies, who in turn raises everyone's insurance to cover their cost!

i hear a lot of the thieves r now in prison and most have been deported back to naija!
smh

my friends car may be among

does anybody know a good immigration lawyer practicing in the UK. Preferably a Nigerian person.

Please someone reply, it is urgent! thanks

Just now now now. Some person say, Lagos state Government should not authorize dealership. Maybe they will see reson now

Mpetempe:

Our Country Needs Serious Delieverance From Spirit Of Stealing,

Poor Men Steals, Rich Men Likewise Steal Despite Their Weathy,

From The First Citizen To The Last. Needs Pure Delieverance.

gbam,,,include you and me,,, everybody is a suspect

i wish they get all the car thiefs. soon it wld be deficult to sell stolen cars cos u wld need to buy 4rm dealers

Greed in play!
I wish pple would think like me: always content with simple things.

The police are also part of the problem and i mean it ! Now that they have cot dis instead of handing him over to d courts after all investigations have been concluded, they wunt do that intead if the guy is ready to settle by tommorow he will be a free man and of course what do you think he is going to do after regaining his freedom ? Go back to his bussiness of dealing un stolen cars of course !!!

Na them Atiku be dis o!

catso:

Customs are not straight forward people.
Those guys shld be tortured very well, they will identify their accomplice.
Bag guys,

I cant believe someone just said the bolded, at a we are suffering from extreme police brutality, intimidation, and utter disregard for human rights.

human right my ass

Its good to know that the police are working hard to get some of this thieves, Please peeps my car was snatched at gun point May 14th 2011 at about 8pm. A toyota corolla 2005 model ( Gold Colour ) with reg number ET 606 LSR. Please if seen anywhere or parhaps reported seen on newspaper if call 07061184929 or help report to the nearest police station.

Thanks and God bless you all
Kay

I think the lesson here is let the buyers beware! A buyer of stolen vehicle is worse than the thief because if there is no market there is no product! When i shipped my car to Nigeria from US, those local mechanic friends told me to write my number on all the glass parts, i initially considered that old fashioned and disfiguring the car but when they gave me instances where that has prevented a car being attractive to car thieves. Do you know the number of times car thieves have visited your parked car and ignored it just because your glass has your number inscrbed on it, at least its easier to pick a car that wont give them that stress of changing glass parts. I went to Ladipo car parts market, people wont buy as simple as wheel cover with numbers inscribed on them. Also let buyers beware of vehicles that dont have evidence of shipment from anywhere even though they are unregistered. When a car has too sweet a bargain it should raise your investigative sense., remember ignorance of the law isnt an excuse so save yourself from police embarrassment, be diligent and take due care when buying that sweet car. May we never suffer consequences of crime we know nothing of but let the buyers BEWARE!!!

@PkaySolo: What a coincidence, Ours too was stolen on Thursday, 7th of April, 2011. A Toyota Corolla 2006 Model. American Specs, Ash/Grey Colour, License Plate: CF 980 FST also at Gunpoint. Infact, it had the number inscribed all over the car - windscreen, all windows, panels,side mirrors, even on the steering wheel.

Pls if noticed or seen in papers, pls call me on 07033445407.
VIN: 1NXBR30E56Z678817


Thank you.

'Dayo

MrPrsdent:

this man is just a born thief.Customs officials can only ever sell an unlicensed vehicle .

Customs Officials can sell licensed vehicle. They impound cars on Nigerian Highways, how legal is what i don't know.

catso:

Customs are not straight forward people.
Those guys shld be tortured very well, they will identify their accomplice.
Bag guys,

You are right,  let us torture everyone. If you don't mind, give me you address so I can provide it to the tax officer. I'm sure you didn't pay your tax last year ( like 90% of Nigerians), You also need some torture for not paying.

jokes apart though, I'm disappointed in the way the police handled this. Why can't they setup a new purchase with the "custom" officer? reading the article tells me it was quite possible to do just that because the arrest of the first person lead to the arrest of two more people few days after that. That means no information about his arrest leaked, except of course if the so call custom is a police officer.

meeen!!!!!dis guys are dem freeking,if u look dis guys u will see that there`s a great gift loaded in them but they never use it wisely,who knows if they`r graduates or not only GOD knows.All i will say is dat may the lord help the to turn yo a new leave.

"EXOTIC toyota camry cars"

Wetin exotic for camry? The tire abi na the haircon?

All recovered vehicles are Toyota. Are they sending a message?

^^^ yeah, buy only picanto

^^^^^^^^^

.

temiade:

does anybody know a good immigration lawyer practicing in the UK. Preferably a Nigerian person.

Please someone reply, it is urgent! thanks

Call me tomorrow on 08022011588 and I'll link u to a Nigerian Immigration Lawyer based in the UK

you dont know what it feels like when ppl like this steal your car.
I lost a 2009 Toyota Sienna worth 3.5M last year to these guys, and am yet to get myself back to shape.

That dude should rot in jail PLS
and forget the fake tap ignition story, these guys will take it from you gunpoint.