Task force arraigns paramilitary officer over theft of impounded motorcycle

Task force arraigns paramilitary officer over theft of impounded motorcycle

The Lagos State Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit  (Task Force) has arraigned a paramilitary officer (Man ‘O’ War) for stealing a motorcycle impounded by the agency.

The motorcycle was one of the 95 impounded by the agency recently.

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mr Wilson Alaba, who represented the chairman of the agency, Mr. Olayinka Egbeyemi, said the paramilitary officer was a member of the enforcement team that impounded motorcycles plying restricted routes around Berger area on Wednesday, August 15, 2017.

He said: “It was after we got to our office and recounted the motorcycles that we discovered that one was missing and, after a thorough investigation, it was discovered that Mr. Olajide Felix, a paramilitary officer (Man ‘O’ War) attached to the agency, stole the motorcycle.”

Alaba noted that the Lagos State government has been paying huge allowances when due to members of the agency’s paramilitary officers to cater for their needs and to equally discourage them from indulging in crime.

He said Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, directed that the suspect be immediately prosecuted: “Mr. Olajide Felix, attached to the agency since 2009, confessed in a statement he wrote after his arrest that he stole the impounded motorcycle and that he has been using it personally.”

In his statement, Felix was alleged to have confessed: “Yes, I stole a motorcycle (Boxer Bajaj), with registration AYE 441 QC, out of 95 motorcycles impounded during enforcement operations at Berger and I was using it for commercial purposes before I was arrested.”

He, however, pleaded for leniency and promised never to indulge in any criminality, if pardoned.

Meanwhile, Magistrate Lateef Owolabi of the Lagos State Mobile Court at Oshodi granted the accused bail after he pleaded guilty to the one-count charged of conduct in a manner likely to cause a breach of peace by stealing an impounded motorcycle.