A man has been apprehended by security men in attached to a church in Surulere, Lagos, for allegedly stealing two phones belonging to a female worker in the church.
The suspected thief described as a perpetual criminal by policemen attached to the Surulere Police Station, was said to have committed the alleged offence two days after he was released from detention from the station over an alleged criminal act he had earlier committed.
In this particular alleged criminal act, the suspect (names withheld) was said to have walked to the apartments upstairs of Our Lady Queen of Nigeria Catholic Church, Surulere, pretending to be a visitor looking for one Sister Joy.
The suspect was also alleged to have asked some people, including the security men, to be directed to the woman’s (Sister Joy) apartment in the church.
According to a member of the congregation, Ifunanya Onyema, “The thief was in the church and had waited till the end of the service. After service, he began to ask people about the apartment of Sister Joy. People did not know that he was a thief. They just believed that he was a member of the church, but unknown to everybody, he was a criminal looking for his victim. The thief later went to the apartment of Sister Joy, after she had gone out, and stole her two mobile phones.
“But luck ran out on the thief, when he wanted to leave the church. As at that time, members of the congregation had left the church. The security men on duty asked him where he was coming from. He began to blab. They told him that the church had closed and members had left the church. They asked: ‘Where are you coming from?’ It was while the interrogation was going on that Sister Joy ran to the security men telling them that somebody had stolen her handsets. The security men them called her phone her number and it was ringing in the thief’s pocket. That was how he was apprehended.”
Onyema said, the thief was then dragged to the Surulere Police Station.
“The reverend father had to call in the police, who took him to the station. Many people had been complaining of losing their valuables inside the church, but God had exposed the thief at last,” she said.
A police inspector attached to the Surulere Police Station, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “The same thief was just released from the cell. The thief is an FGN (meaning, he is a very poor person). He has no job. He did not learn any work. He did not go to school. So what is he going to do? He must steal to survive.”
