By Ifeoma Ikem
A robbery suspect caught by the operatives of Ejigbo Divisional Police, Lagos state Police Command, says robbery gives quick money, compared to painting.
The suspect, 30-year house painter Chinedu Obinma, caught by the long arm of the law added that the economy is bad and people hardly painted houses these days.
Obinma said he went into robbery to take care of himself because it brought him quick money, unlike painting where he would stay for months without anybody asking for a painter.
He was arrested after he robbed a woman who sells hot drinks of her phone and made her transfer N230,000 from her phone to another bank account before he was caught.
He told the Police that he works as an artisan, a painter but the business was no longer lucrative so he abandoned it to join a robbery gang in order to make a living.
“I hail from Anambra State but came to Lagos about seven years ago to try my best to make a living as a painter.
“I could not even get any painting work to take care of myself’’.
Sahara weekly gathered from the residents, that the suspect was believed to be involved in series of robbery operations within Ejigbo and its enivorns.
It was believed that he usually did not bear arms but rather used tricks to dispossess people of their personal items.
Nemesis was said to have caught up with him at Cele area of Okota – Ejigbo road when he went to a woman that sold hot drinks and bought a drink.
He gave the woman N1000 for N100 worth of drink, but as the woman stepped out to look for change, he quickly removed her phone and gave to his accomplice.
The accomplice quickly went through the phone immediately transferred the money from the woman’s account to another account.
The woman came back from where she had gone to look for change and started looking for the phone she left.
She held the suspect and raised alarm that attracted passerby who gathered to search him and found the phone on him.
It was the intervention of God that saved him from being lynched.
Our correspondent learnt that it was CSP Olabisi Okuwobi, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) with her team on route patrol that rescued him and took him to the station where he confessed.