A boy caught stealing in broad daylight
Recently, the residents of Likesmind Estate, Irewolede community, off Imowo-nla, Ikorodu, Lagos, were taken aback by the visit of a strange visitor to their neighbourhood. It was around 1:00pm in the afternoon of last week Friday, 4th of December 2020, when young Bolade, as relayed by an eyewitness, broke into the residence of Mr. Biyi O., through the kitchen's window of the building.
But unknowingly to Bolade while he was in the building operating; a security-conscious man named Afolabi M. thwarted his plan before he could finish his evil business.
Disturbed by the fact that all windows of Mr. Biyi's apartment were locked, except the broken one, Mr. Afolabi had lurked around for Bolade to come out of the building to carry the sack that he had thrown into the bush behind. This sack, according to the eyewitness, was used to convey the valuables (including laptops and money) that Bolade had stolen from the Mr. Biyi's house.
And as soon as the thief came out, Mr. Afolabi quickly grabbed him with his arms, and then started to interrogate him, even as he raised alarm for the attention of others. “Who are you? Where are you from?” Mr. Afolabi M. asked the Bolade, who, reportedly, was in his early twenties.
But to Mr. Afolabi's question, the panicked thief replied that he was a carpenter that had been contracted to work in the building. A response that led to further probing, and eventually, the calling of the house owners who were not around at the time the scene unfolded. In other words, calls were made to Mr. Biyi and his wife, one after the other, by close neighbours that had their phone numbers, to verify the claim of the Bolade. And interestingly, they both declined, although each of them assumed the other person had probably done that.
However, in a nutshell, Bolade was held captive and physically tortured. Big bamboo sticks were used by the aggressive mob to hit his knees; so as to prevent him from escaping or running away. And then, being half naked, this young miscreant was taken to his mother's place at Aiyegbami, a community close to the crime scene, where he had purportedly come from.
Regardless of his mother's tears, the mob took Bolade to the nearest police station, Imowo-Nla Police station, to report the case. But to their bewilderment, they were told to pay a sum of money to open a case, which they were not ready to pay, or perhaps didn't have the money to pay.
According to the witness, the mob initially wanted to give Bolade cement to drink, which could have taken his life without wasting time; but out of pity they didn’t. However, the witness also relayed his displeasure at how the case had ended. He felt that the inability of the mob to put Bolade behind bars, due to the police charge for filing a case, wasn't cool at all.
He therefore added that because of this, some people might not be willing to report similar cases or security matters to police, when they can, without financial charges, take judicial decisions on the their own, such as immediate killing of criminals, or as the case maybe.