Man arrested for buying stolen phones from robbers

BY OKOSUN DENNIS

For buying stolen phones from armed robbers and “one chance” criminal gangs and rebranding them as “London Used Phones,” one Jamiu Adebayo, 30 has been arrested in Lagos State by the operatives of Rapid Response Squad (RRS).

Adebayo, who was caught with several phones, was tracked and found in possession of an iphone 7 belonging to one Kolade Johnson, a banker working in Lagos Island.

The victim, Johnson, was said to had on August 23 boarded a ‘one chance’ commercial bus around 5:45 am. on his way to work.

The robbers, who operated with a commercial bus dispossessed him of a laptop and two phones, one of which was traced to Adebayo while trying to sell it to a customer in Lagos Island as a ‘London Used Phone’.

Other phones found in the possession of Adebayo were six additional iphones, four assorted phones and three MTN SIM packs, which he stated he collected from some of the robbers.

The suspect in his confession to the police stated that he regularly bought stolen phones from three people who he is aware are members of an armed robbery and ‘one chance’ gangs.

He explained, “I buy stolen phones from Uche, Alubi and Pinheiro. These are the three major guys I collect these phones from. Five out of the 11 phones traced to me were bought from Uche.

“If I tell you that I don’t know these phones are stolen phones and that some of those guys I get the phones from are robbers, I would be lying to you. I know some of these phones were forcefully collected from people’, he explained.

“I buy iphone 7 with icloud at N45,000 and sell for N55,000. Those without icloud, I buy at N150,000 and sell for N180,000. I buy iphone 6 at N65,000. I buy Samsung phones at N22,000 and sell for N27,000. I sell other phones too. I work on the phones, disguise and brand them as “London used phones.”

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Adebayo also confessed that he works with a phone technician to unlock iphones with active icloud. “what we do is talk the owner to unlock it’.

National Daily gathered from police source that Uche, Pinheiro and Aluba have been on the run since the suspect, Adebayo, was arrested last week Tuesday.

However, the police has warned prospective buyers of used phones to be mindful who and where they they buy a fairly used phone from, to avoid “using your money to buy trouble for yourself.

“Some of these so-called “London Used Phones” might actually be stolen phones. If there are no buyers, there would be low demand for stolen phones and robbers would cease to be interested in other people’s phones,” RRS reiterated.