NITEL cable theft: I have no regrets – suspect





A 19-year-old boy, Eze David is presently struggling to convince the police at the Area A Command, Lagos over his culpability or otherwise following allegations of stealing telecommunication cables belonging to Nigerian Telecommunication Limited, NITEL. The dark-skinned teenager who left his home town in Abia State to learn music production in Lagos has been claiming that he had no intention of stealing but the police thinks otherwise.

He was arrested along two others identified as Iluwa Ubah and  Oyebuchi Nwodom, vandalizing and stealing  telecommunication cables inside a manhole at Broad Street at the Lagos Island, by a team of Anti-Robbery Policemen on patrol. One other suspected thief however, told detectives that he has no regrets over his actions because he was stealing cables as a means of livelihood.

Policemen attached to Dolphin Estate Police Station also arrested two cable thieves Femi David and Michael Okoki, with 117 pieces of cables stolen from a manhole along Kakawa Street in Lagos Island.   Crime Alert learnt that the telecommunication manholes along the Lagos Island and it’s environ have been terribly vandalized by a  notorious gang of cable thieves  forcing the new Area Commander,  Imohimi Edgal, to order a total clampdown on their activities.

He, however, confessed that he was mislead into joining the gang stating that  his master who was teaching him music production asked him to get some money for agreement.  Her told Crime Alert; “My father died when I was a little boy and my mother has been the one fending for me and my siblings.

She asked me what I intended doing after I graduated from secondary school last year and I told her that I want to be a music producer. I also told her that I can learn the job in Lagos State and all she needed to do was to provide my transport fare.

She sold off some of her cloths and other properties and she was able to raise about N10, 000 for me. I and one other friend came to Lagos together but he returned back to the village when his money got finished. I refused to go back with him because I knew what my mother did to get me the transport fare.

I didn’t want to let her and my younger siblings down.   I managed to meet a music producer in Kirikiri Town and I worked with him for about three months before he asked me to pay N30, 000 and a carton of beer as agreement fee.  I didn’t have such money so he sent me out of his shop where I was also sleeping. I became stranded.

I went to a trailer park at Orile. There, I was working with a man who sells drugs and after the end of work, I would sleep in one of the abandoned vehicles. I made a couple of friends while I was staying there and there was this guy we call ‘Small’ who was very kind to me.

He usually buys food when ever I am hungry and he told me that he works for a copper company.  There was this day I asked him to lend me some money so I can pay my agreement fee, he refused and said he could not give such an amount of money, but he would rather have me work for it. I asked him how and he said I should wait and he would call me when the time was ripe.

On   April 1, 2013, around 10:30pm, he came to the vehicle where I was sleeping and said there was a job he had for me, I asked what it was and he said he wants me and two other men to follow him to Lagos Island to cut some underground cables. He told me that the cables belongs to government but they have been abandoned.

I asked him if it was stealing and he said no that some NITEL staffs are the once selling the cables to them. He took me and two other men to the place and we saw him talking to a man he introduced to us as his boss, after which we entered into a manhole and they covered it from the top.

We used a jack in pulling out the cables and Small was the one cutting it.  Before we knew it, the police came and asked us to come out of the manhole. On our way out, Small hid inside the small water inside the manhole and asked us to tell the police about it that he will have to arraigned with his boss to bail us.

I trusted him and I didn’t tell the police about it but up till now, he has not shown up.  But this wasn’t what I bargained for when I came to Lagos, I am not a thief and I don’t intend to steal for survival,  I wouldn’t have followed him if he had  explained to  me that  the cables were stolen.  Small didn’t explain it to me properly and now I am in trouble,”he stated.

But 28- year- old Femi David, who was arrested with 117 cables said he has no regrets over  his actions. The Ogun State- born suspect told Crime Alert that he adopted cable theft as a means of livelihood when he couldn’t secure a decent job.   “I have no regret for my actions.  I have done this for about 10 times and I ventured into it because there was no job.

I am the leader of my own group and I steal cables from several manholes in Lagos State. I started last year and I usually operate in areas where I knew the police do not patrol regularly. The job that gave me out was at Broad Street by Kakawa on Lagos Island, we did that for about two days and when we were about conveying the cables out of the area, the police intercepted us along Osbon- Ikoyi Road.

I was formally selling the cables at Marine Beach in Ajegunle but I stopped selling it there when Fashola demolished the shanties under the bridge.  This time, I wanted to sell to a man called Uche and he said he wanted large quantity that was why we had large numbers.



Vanguard