Driver, 2 others sent to prison for allegedly stealing employer’s N6m container

By Paul Iyoghojie

The Police at the Area ‘B’ Command, Apapa, Lagos have arraigned a truck driver, Raheem Quadri, and two others before a Lagos Magistrate’s Court for allegedly conniving to divert and steal the 40ft empty container they were sent to deliver at the Tin Can Island Port, Apapa, Lagos by the complainant, Mr Emmanuel Atteba.

Police said trouble started after Quadri, 31, ThankGod,38, and Izuchukwu Udeogwu, 45, were hired on 30 January 2022 to move the container from the Injanikin area of Lagos to Apapa Port.

Police further alleged that instead of taking the container to the Port, the driver, and others diverted the truck and allegedly sold off the container and escaped.

Police said when the complainant could not find the driver, others, and his container at the Port within 24 hours, he sensed foul play and reported the matter to the Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP in charge of Area ‘B’ Command, Apapa, Lagos who swiftly gave a marching order to his crack team led by Inspector Adekola Taiwo to fish out the truck and the container.

The Police team, after days of intelligence gathering, tracked the driver to a hideout and arrested him.

The driver led the Police to arrest Udeogwu with the truck at his residence.

When the Police asked Udeogwu about the container, he could not give a satisfactory account leading to his arrest.

The three defendants were charged before the Apapa Magistrate’s Court, Ajegunle, Lagos on three count charges bordering on conspiracy and stealing.

Police Prosecuting Counsel, Adega Tyonyiman told the Court in the charge marked Q/13/2022 that the Complainant hired the defendants and paid them to help him convey an empty container to Tin Can Island Port, Apapa, Lagos, but instead, the defendants betrayed the trust reposed in them by the complainant and sold off the container and escaped before they were arrested.

Tyonyiman said the offenses, the defendants committed were punishable under sessions 411, 280(1)(a) and 117(2) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges, and the Magistrate, Mrs. A.O Williams granted them N500,000 bail each with two sureties each in like sum.

Williams adjourned the case till 11 August 2022 for mention and ordered that the defendants be detained at the Kirikiri correctional facility till they perfected the bail conditions.