Photo: Police arrest Atiku, one other for stealing

Saidu Atiku and one other who specialized in vandalizing vehicles and stealing their brain boxes have been arrested by officials of the Lagos State Rapid Response Squad, RRS.

The suspects, Sodiq Musa, 28 and Saidu Atiku, 34, were nabbed at 27, Awolowo Road, Ikeja with three Toyota vehicle brain boxes while Ridwan Adamu escaped with the fourth box.

Sodiq, who claimed to be graduate of Political Science from one of the Nigerian Universities, said he came to Lagos in 2017 in search of greener pasture.

“I worked in Lagos as a barbecue man in various hotels and event centres before I met Ridwan who introduced me to brain box theft. We use ‘magic stone,’ that is, vehicle spark plug to break vehicle windows without attracting attention.

It takes two minutes to loose a Toyota Hiace bus brain box and it takes four minutes to lose a Toyota Hilux box. The spark plug reduces the noise and effects and can quickly break of any vehicle’s window and we tie the plug in a handkerchief in a situation where we have multiple vehicles to work on,” he narrated.

Sodiq also told officers that Saidu, a security guard in the company where they were arrested , earlier in the day called Ridwan who is the leader of the team to come vandalise the vehicles belonging to their company which were parked outside the company’s premises.

On getting the hint, Ridwan and Sodiq got to the venue around 1:00 a.m. They broke into two Toyota Hiace and two Toyota Hilux belonging to the company who employed Saidu as a night guard, stealing their brain boxes before another security nearby raised the alarm.

This led to their arrest. Sodiq was caught with three boxes while Ridwan fled with one. Sodiq was thereafter taken to RRS Headquarters, where he confessed the involvement of Saidu.

He revealed that Saidu invited them for the operation and had slept beside the vehicles, which they vandalized and stole from while he cooperated and pretended like nothing was happening.

“We specialised in stealing Toyota brain boxes because they fetch good money in the market. The demand for them are higher than any other brand. For example we sold a Toyota Hiace bus for N40,000 while that of Toyota Hilux goes for N20,000 respectively”.

The Commissioner of Police, CP Zubairu Muazu, in his reaction to the incident directed the transfer of the case to State CID, Panti.