National Wire About Nigerians, Nigerian Business and Other Stories
By: Okosun Dennis
A musician and a pianist have been arrested by the Rapid Response Squad unit of the Lagos Police Command for robbery.
The entertainers, Chinonso Michael, 25 years, an Afro hip – hop singer and Chimelu Victory, 22 years, a pianist, said they were forced into robbery by hunger orchestrated by Covid-19 lockdown.
The duo were arrested last week Wednesday in their residence at No: 4, Modupe Young Thomas Estate, Ajah, Lagos in company of five other suspects by the Decoy Team of RRS.
It was learnt that on 10th April, 2020 they ordered for pay on delivery, an iPhone 11 Pro Max valued at N450,000:00 in an online platform, Jiji.com from their service charge apartment in Ajah.
On receipt of the consignment from a delivery man, one Anifowoshe Itunu, Chimelu, the buyer generated a fake alert to the rider first and later, with the connivance of Chinonso escaped from the apartment after they had tied down the despatch rider with a bottle of beer.
The suspects later sold the iPhone 11 Pro Max to a buyer in Ogba, Ikeja Lagos for the sum of N350,000:00 which was transferred into Chinoso’s bank account.
The State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu who confirmed their arrest said that when the suspects sighted the police, they jumped off from the first floor at their apartment to the ground naked to evade arrest.
Nationalwire learnt that the suspects in their confessional statement said this was the third time they have sold iPhone 11 Pro Max during the Covid-19 lockdown adding that two of the phones were ordered online with stolen credit cards.
As a result of his escape bid, one of the suspects, Chinonso fractured his arm and bruised his chin immediately he landed on the ground floor before he was arrested and taken to the hospital.
Chinonso and Chimelu, who entertained people regularly in some Lagos night clubs attributed their actions to Covid-19 lockdown. According to them, “during the lock down there was nothing going and we didn’t have anything to eat for about two weeks.
“We were owing all the store owners in the neighbourhood. Nobody was ready to give us credit facility anymore. We had to device a means to survive the lock down”, they reiterated.
Chinonso, it was learnt changed his stage name recently from Authority to Happy – Boy. He added that he had started staying Chimelu at his Ajah residence in March, 2020 noting that he was his music teacher in Aba, Abia state before he moved to Lagos.
Chimelu, who is popularly called Apostle Swag recently resigned as a Lekki church keyboardist to pursuit a career in music, stating that he used to have regular shows in Lagos clubs before the lockdown.
The suspects further confessed that apart from their musical careers, they also engaged in internet fraud.
Exhibits recovered from the suspects included: one iPhone 11Pro Max, three laptops, two flash drives, two WiFi connection modems, two memory cards, four SIM cards, one Samsung phone and one iPhone.
Commenting on the development, Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu maintained that the internet is a fertile ground for opportunities but the State Command would not allow criminals to use it to exploit legitimate business owners.
The suspects have been transferred to SARS for further investigations and prosecution.
