‘I stole company’s car because of my sick mother’

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested a 32-year-old driver for allegedly stealing his company’s car.

The suspect, Ibrahim Hassan, confessed to have stolen the car because his company refused to grant his request for a loan. He explained that the loan was to enable him take care of his sick mother’s medical bill.

Hassan was arrested along with four others; Abubakar Salisu, Tochukwu Darlington, John Agbo and Dauda Abdulahi.

The suspects were arrested after a complaint was lodged by the company over the disappearance of their driver, along with the Mitsubishi Hilux car.

The suspects were arrested on their way to sell the car to a dealer at the Ogudu area of Ojota.

Hassan said: “I stole the car in other to raise money to offsets the medical bill of my sick mother. She was admitted at a hospital and had already incurred a bill of N70, 000. I had a financial challenge; I approached my company for help. I begged for a loan, but the company refused. The management said it didn’t have enough money at the moment to give me. I demanded for a week casual leave to be able to look for the money and it was granted.”

Hassan explained that after running from pillar to post for three days, trying to raise the money, without success, he decided to look at another option.

The option was to steal his company’s Mitsubishi Hilux car, which was under his car and sell it.

Hassan continued: “I took a week leave to source for the money; but after three days, I couldn't find anybody to help me. It was at that point that the thought of stealing the car crept into my mind.

“On the fourth day, I went back to the company. I told them I wanted to resume back. Naturally, nobody in the company suspected anything. I was handed the key of the car. After close of work that day, I picked the car and drove out of the company. Nobody challenged me.

"After stealing the car, I contacted my brother. He is a car dealer. He introduced me to one Godwin. The Godwin took me to someone at Ojota. We, however, couldn’t agree on a price. As we were driving back to Ajah, some policemen flagged us down. After some questions, they arrested us.”

Salisu said that his own role in the gang was just to get a buyer. He added: “I was able to get a buyer for the car.  The seller wanted to sell it for N3.2million, but the buyer wanted to pay N2million. We were returning from the buyer’s place when policemen stopped us. They demanded for the particulars of the car. We couldn’t provide it; that was how we were arrested.”

Darlington, who is one of the prospective buyers of the car, said that he didn’t know it was a stolen one.

His words: “I sell fairly used cars at Ladipo Market. My friend Godwin told me that his friend’s younger brother wanted to sell a car at a very cheap rate. I started looking for buyers. I also wanted to make some money from the deal, in order to take care of my family. I contacted some of my customers. Godwin’s friend said he wanted to sell the car for N3.5 million. We were returning from Ogudu when policemen arrested us.”