Police arrest notorious thief who flees with victims’ phones after requesting to make calls

The Niger State Police Command has arrested a notorious phone snatcher in Suleja. 

The spokesperson of the command, SP Wasiu Abiodun, who disclosed this in a statement on Friday, October 18, 2024, said the suspect, Jamilu Ismail, would approach his victims for help to use their phones to make calls and immediately the devices were given to him, he flees. 

“On 16/10/2024 at about 1640hrs, one Jamilu Ismail 32yrs of Shaku village, Lapai was arrested by the Police operatives attached to Maje Div. with three stolen handsets,” the statement read. 

“The suspect was arrested under the bridge at Maje, following a complaint received against him that sometime within the month of July this year, he approached a victim, requested for help to use the victim’s handset to make a call, and immediately the phone was given to him, he took to his heels

“Fortunately, on the said date, the victim sighted the suspect along Maje road, raised an alarm and the suspect was intercepted under the bridge at the Police patrol team point. He was searched and three assorted phones were recovered from him.

“During interrogation, he confessed that he used the same style to collect the phones from the owners around Dikko, Maje and Suleja, but he had sold the one he collected in July in Suleja at the rate of thirty thousand naira. 

“The suspect is under investigation at the Div, as effort is ongoing to recover other phones he had sold out.”