Operatives of Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested a driver who connived with three other persons to divert and sell 600 bags of flour and a truck belonging to his employer.
The suspect, Garuba Lawal, 36, from Kwara State connived with three others now at large and diverted the bags of flour to Sagamu, Ogun State. The product was thereafter sold to a buyer, while he took the truck to Ilorin, Kwara State, where it was dismembered and sold in pieces.
Garuba, who was recruited by the Company (name withheld) on the same day and was to move the bags of flour to a bakery in Ibadan, Oyo State, before they were diverted.
The suspect, in his statement to the police, 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 asked me how much I have made since I have been driving trucks. I replied him that I just joined the haulage company and he asked again if I have ever seen money in my life and I said no. After which he asked what I would do if offered N2 Million. I answered him that I would quit this truck driving job. Then, he told that he would introduce me to a deal. That was how we started,” he said.
Garuba said he was made to swear an oath as a pact between himself and three other colleagues who conspired to commit the act and that thereafter he obeyed whatever instructions he was given without further questioning.
According to sources, Garuba, in the company of the three accomplices diverted the bags of flour to Sagamu instead of its scheduled destination in Oyo State.
The source added that at Sagamu, Garuba was informed that the head of the truck had to be removed for a smaller one because it could not enter the warehouse if the goods were to be offloaded. Thereafter, the truck was taken to Kwara State and dismantled for sale in pieces.
Arrested along with Garuba Lawal were Jimoh Adeleye, Wasiu Azeez and Adeniran Jacob.
Confirming the development, the Police Public Relations Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP Olarinde Famous Cole, said that there would be no hiding place for those who come to Lagos to perpetrate crime, adding that the police would fish out all such criminal suspects.
All the suspects have been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation and prosecution.
