Oluwatobi Akindele
A driver, Daniel Benson, has been arrested for allegedly breaking into the apartment of a medical doctor and carting away her valuables.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the 27-year-old, alongside an accomplice, identified simply as Mickey, allegedly broke into the house of Dr Shade Adebanjo in the Lekki-Epe area of Lagos State.
It was learnt that while making away with the loot in the victim’s car, he crushed two people.
While Benson was arrested, Mickey reportedly escaped.
The suspect, in his statement to the police, confessed to the crime, adding that the gang used a toy gun.
He said, “Mickey and I broke into the woman’s house through the window. Mickey had a wood that was wrapped with a cello tape and looked like a gun and I had a knife.
“After we carted away her belongings, we packed everything in a bag and put them in her white Honda Pilot. On our way, the vehicle was involved in an accident and two people died. We came outside through the back, abandoned the vehicle and ran away. Mickey fled with the money and I have not seen him since then.”
The Delta State indigene was arraigned before an Ogba Magistrates’ Court on three counts of conspiracy and robbery.
The police prosecutor, Samuel Ishola, told the court that the offences contravened sections 297(1), 296 and 287 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2015.
The charges read in part, “That You, Daniel Benson, and others now at large, on April 17, 2018, around 12.30am at Block 3, Ape C Daniscoye Place, Mivertine Estate, Lekki, Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did conspire among yourselves to commit felony, to wit; robbery.
“That you, Daniel Benson, and others now at large, on the same date, time and place, in the aforementioned magisterial district, did, with actual violence and threat, steal jewellery valued at N1.5m, ATM card of different banks and other valuable items yet to be ascertained, property of one Folashade Adebanjo.
“That you, Daniel Benson, and others now at large, on the same date, time and place, in the aforementioned magisterial district, did steal the sum of N1.4m by transferring the said sum from the First Bank account of one Folashade Adebanjo through mobile transfer.”
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The presiding magistrate, Mrs I. A. Abina, granted him bail in the sum of N500,000, with two sureties each in like sum.
She said the sureties must be gainfully employed with three years tax payment, adding that one of the sureties must be a level 10 officer in the state civil service with a verifiable address.
The case was adjourned till October 24, 2018.
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