Crime
How truck driver stole 600 bags of flour same day he was employed
By OKOSUN DENNIS
Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested a driver who connived with three other persons in diverting his company’s 600 bags of flour before dismembering the truck in pieces for sale.
The only suspect narrested do far is Garuba Lawal, 36, from Kwara while the three others are now at large.
The product to be delivered from Apapa to Ibadan was thereafter given out to another buyer, while Garuna took the truck to Ilorin, Kwara state, where it was dismembered and sold in pieces.
Garuba, who was recruited by the company the same day he was tasked to move the 600 bags of flour to a bakery in Ibadan, Oyo State, was baited with N2 million by his accomplices to do their bidding.
National Daily learnt that the suspect disclosed that after loading on Sunday at the Nigeria Flour Mills in Apapa, a young man, whose name was later given as Ismaila from Oyo State, approached him for a discussion.
“He invited me close to my truck just as I was about to drive it out of the loading bay. He asked me how much I have made in my life since I have been driving truck. I replied him that I just joined the haulage company.
“He asked again, have ever seen money in your life? I said no. He asked me again, if you see N2 million, what would you do with it? I answered him that I would quit this truck driving job. Then, he told me that he would introduce me to a deal. That was how we started.”
“While his two other colleagues were waiting in the Toyota Corrolla they brought. He took me to a corner and brought a cowrie. He told me that I would have to swallow the cowrie as a sign of bond that anybody that divulge the secret between us would die instantly,” Garuba stated.
“I took the cowrie and swallowed it. Immediately I did that, I observed that whatever instruction he gave me, I was just obeying it without a second thought.”
Garuba was said to have, in company of the three accomplices, diverted the 600 bags of flour to Sagamu instead of its scheduled destination on a Sunday night and they got to Sagamu around 2:25 a.m last Monday.
“We arrived Sagamu. It was very early in the morning and I couldn’t identify anywhere so much. All along, they acted as escort for the truck to Sagamu. One of them was in the truck with me because the motor-boy didn’t follow us,” he stated.
National Daily gathered that in order to conceal their deal and made it impossible to be traced, Garuba was convinced to remove the head of the truck for a small one because it could not enter the warehouse the goods were to be offloaded.
“We put a new truck head and they gave me N50,000. We agreed that I drive the truck head to Kwara State in company of two other members of the team to sell it off. We got to Ilorin around 7:15 a.m. on Monday.
“I took the two guys to where I live with my wife. They promised to return with my share on N2 million as soon as bank was opened. They collected N15,000 for hotel accommodation from the N50,000:00 they gave me.
“When I didn’t see them that day and the following day, I agreed with a buyer to knock down the truck into pieces. The tyres, engine, radiator, chassis for N450,000.”
Lawal further added that he was arrested by Rapid Response Squad Lagos shortly after they had dismembered the truck.