13-Year Old Arrested For Stealing Generator

A 13-year old boy, Miracle Linus, who resides at 1, Tajudeen Ogunseye Street off Idimu Road, Lagos State, South –West Nigeria, has been arrested for stealing a generator from a building located at 46, Idimu Road.

Miracle told P.M.NEWS after his arrest by the police from Ejigbo station: “I have been doing it for a long time, though I actually don’t steal here because the area is close to my house.

“What I was doing initially was just to pick plugs from the ground, and sell to the cart pushers, who sell metal and aluminium materials around.

“I stole the generator when the owner had gone to work, and I kept it very close to the owner’s house so that it will be easy for me to carry whenever I’m coming for it.”

The suspect, who claimed to be a pupil of Grace Villa, Nursery and Primary School, Idimu Road, Ejigbo Lagos, confessed that he did not take the generator to the house where he lives with his mother because he wanted to avoid being suspected.

“I don’t steal alone; I steal with my other brothers,” he confessed.

On how he entered the house, the suspect, who is currently being detained by the police at Ejigbo station, said: “I came in through the gate. Before I entered I had already surveyed the entire place to be sure nobody was watching. Before I carried the generator, I removed the cable plugged on it and I carried it successfully.

“If I am eventually freed from this, I will talk to my people to stop stealing.”

Kunle Adeola, the owner of the generator, said he came back from work and could not find the generator.

He said when he screamed, a neighbour who had seen the boy taking the generator away informed him about it.

“Truly, when we got to their house, he confessed to me that he took it, and while he was confessing his parents were denying that their son could steal.

“In fact, to my greatest surprise, the boy’s mother was the first person to report the matter at the police station that we were trying to frame-up her child, but when his parents discovered the truth, they began to beg,” he said.

—Dedeigbo Ayodeji