Members of the Amotekun corps in Osun State have apprehended Emmanuel Popoola, a 30-year-old ex-convict, for allegedly stealing phones from secondary school students in Ile-Ife.
According to reports from the News Agency of Nigeria, the suspect was working as a security guard at a private secondary school in Ile-Ife, where he stole the students’ mobile phones.
In June, during exams at Crown Comprehensive College, Ile-Ife, students entrusted their phones to Popoola, who was supposed to keep them during the exam. Instead, he collected the phones and fled from the school, hiding from authorities.
The incident was reported to the Amotekun corps, leading to the suspect’s arrest through intelligence and investigation. He was apprehended on Wednesday in Ikirun, Ifelodun Local Government Area.
Upon interrogation, Popoola admitted to the theft and revealed that he had previously served an eight-month jail term for a similar crime. The commander of the Amotekun corps, Brig-Gen Bashir Adewinmbi (retd.), mentioned that the suspect had been involved in phone theft for an extended period.
The search of the suspect yielded seven SIM cards from different telecom networks, an Infinix phone with a SIM card, casings for Tecno Pop 3, Infinix Hot, and Tecno Spark phones, as well as an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card.
Adewinmbi emphasized that the suspect has been handed over to the police for further investigation and prosecution.
