The Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) have arrested a 30-year- old engineer, Chinedu Nmaduekwe, at the Computer Village, Ikeja, Lagos, for alleged involvement in stolen computers.
The police indicted Nmaduekwe in the recycling of stolen phones and computer sets.
Though the Malaysia-trained software expert has maintained his innocence on the matter, IRT operatives insisted most of the computers they recovered from his shop were stolen.
A police source told our correspondent that it was actually some traders at the Computer Village who, worried by the suspected criminal activities of the suspect, reported him to the IRT office at Ikeja.
The source added that IRT operatives, following the squeal, raided the suspect’s shop and after a thorough search found incriminating items like 15 desktops panels and three broken desktops suspected to have been stolen.
Nmaduekwe, however, stood his ground. “I am an Ordinary Level certificate holder and travelled to Malaysia to learn computer engineering.
“Unfortunately, after I had finished the course, I discovered in 2017 that my papers were about to expire. Instead of risking trouble, I decided to come back to Nigeria. That was in 2018.
“The same year, I rented a shop at the Computer Village, Ikeja, to do my trade, specializing in repairing damaged or faulty desktops. I fix desktops that are bad. I do not repair nor buy stolen desktops,” he stated.