A 32-year-old serial burglar who specialises in stealing plasma TV has been arrested in Kwara, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps said.
Olaleke Tope, a father of two, is said to be a graduate of business and entrepreneur of Ibrahim Babangida University, Lapai, Niger, according to NSCDC Kwara spokesman Babawale Afolabi.
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He was arrested on August 10 after a man, Hashim Ibrahim, reported robbers struck at his home and took away two TV sets—a 65-inch Samsung curved UHD TV and a 55-inch TCL 4K smart TV.
Ibrahim said the robbers took off immediately they noticed the family were awake.
“The complainant picks up his vehicle with the intention of coming to make official report to security agent. In the process, he noticed a strange vehicle moving very slowly along their street,” said Afolabi.
“He made effort to stop the vehicle but the vehicle zoomed off and the complainant ran after the vehicle. He later intercepted the suspect and his vehicle along Maraba road. The suspect jumped out of the car and ran away.”
Babawale also said that the security task force of the state government, Operation Harmony towed the vehicle to the NSCDC state command.
“During investigation, a phone was found in the car. A particular number was picked from the prime suspect’s call history which led to a soft target that later assisted in the arrest of the prime suspect along Geri Alimi axis around 20:30pm on August 10, 2021.
“Tope Olaleke, the prime suspect admitted in his confessional statement and confirmed that he and one Majid who is presently at large, broke into the complainant’s house and stole two plasma television on 10/08/2021 around 4:00hrs”, Babawale said.
“In the course of searching the prime suspect’s house and shop, about five plasma television sets worth millions of naira were recovered among other electronic appliances.”