I buy phones from robbers, resell as London-used —Man arrested with stolen phone

A 30-year-old phone dealer, Jamiu Adebayo, whose area of specialty was to buy stolen mobile phones from armed robbers and One Chance gangs, has told operatives of Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command that he used to present the phones as London-used to unsuspecting members of the public.

Tribune Online learnt that the RRS operatives arrested the suspect, a resident of 27, Araloya Street Lagos, after he was tracked and found to be with an iPhone 7 belonging to one Kolade Johnson, a banker working in Lagos Island.
Information gathered revealed that the banker boarded a One Chance commercial bus around 5:45 a.m on August 23 on his way to work.

The robbers, operating with the commercial bus, reportedly dispossessed him of a laptop and two phones. One of the phones was eventually traced to Adebayo while trying to sell it in Lagos Island.

Also found with the suspect were six other iPhones, four assorted phones and three SIM packs, which he said he collected from some of the robbers.

Adebayo, an erstwhile National Union of Road Transport Worker member at Ajah area of the state, told the RRS operatives that he went into the sale of cloth after raising enough money. He added that it was here he ventured into fairly used phone sales.

Adebayo disclosed that he was a regular buyer of stolen phones from three people who were members of armed robbery and One Chance gangs.

‘It is not up to a year that I started selling fairly-used phones. When boys were patronising my shop, they talked of buying fairly-used phones. I started assisting them to collect phones and sell to them. This was about three years ago.

“Uche, Alubi and Pinheiro are 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 were stolen phones and that some of those I get the phones from are robbers, I would be lying to you. I know some of these phones were forcefully collected from people,” Adebayo said.

“I buy iPhone 7 with i-cloud at N45,000 and sell N55,000. Those without i-cloud, I buy at N150,000 and sell N180,000.

“I buy iPhone 6 at N65,000. I buy Samsung phones at N22,000 and sell N27,000. I sell other phones too. I work on the phones and make them look like London used phones.”

A source disclosed that Uche, Pinheiro, and Aluba had been on the run since the suspect’s arrest.

Confirming the development, Lagos State Police PRO, ASP Olarinde Famous Cole, stated that the case had been transferred to State Criminal Investigation Department while efforts were being made to arrest the fleeing suspects.