A 28-year-old burglary suspect, Olamilekan Olaoluwa, has been arrested by policemen from the Iponri division after breaking into a house in the Ebute-Meta area of Lagos State.
The Kwara State indigene was said to have broken into a two-bedroomed flat on Brickfield Road on Sunday around 2pm, while the occupant was away.
Olaoluwa, a secondary school dropout, removed a Plasma TV from the wall where it was hung and packed the clothes, wristwatches and a handset of his victim.
Not done, he proceeded to the kitchen and opened the fridge where he picked a can of malt to refresh himself.
He was still entertaining himself when the owner of the apartment came in and found the suspect with the loot.
She was said to have raised the alarm, drawing the attention of residents who beat up the suspect before handing him over to the police.
Olaoluwa, who claimed to have spent six years to train as a plumber, said he did not have a job or a place of abode. He said he broke into his victim’s house because the gate was left opened.
He said, “I am a secondary school dropout. I do not have a permanent place of abode, but I sometimes sleep in the Oko Baba Sawmill in Ebute-Meta.
“I don’t always steal from people. On Sunday, November 22, around 2pm, I was passing by when I saw that the gate was slightly opened and that made it easy for me to enter.
“I broke the padlock and entered the sitting room where I removed the Plasma TV. I then entered the bedroom and took the woman’s husband underwears and wristwatches.
“I also took the handset and the TV’s remote control. I opened the fridge and took a can of malt and drank it. I was going downstairs when I saw the woman. She asked who I was and what I was doing in her house.
“I asked her not to shout, but she shouted and people came inside the house.”
It was learnt that the suspect hid himself in a corner of a room in the house, but was found after an intense search.
Some hoodlums allegedly beat him up before he was handed over to the police.
The police said the suspect was arrested with the Plasma TV valued at N150,000; two wristwatches valued at N50,000; underwear estimated at N10,000; a mobile phone valued at N5,000, adding that everything summed up to N215,000.
The Investigating Police Officer, Chukwuocha Augustine, arraigned the suspect on Tuesday before an Ebute-Meta Magistrates’ Court on four counts of burglary, malicious damage, breach of the public peace and stealing.
The Police Prosecutor, Corporal Kokoye Olusegun, said the offences were punishable under sections 305, 337, 285, 166 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2011. The defendant pleaded guilty to all the charges.
The Magistrate, Mrs. O.O.A. Fowowe-Erusiafe, ruled that Olaoluwa be remanded in prison custody. She adjourned the case till November 30 for facts and sentence.
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