By Chinyere Aruogu
Operatives of the Lagos Rapid Response Squad (RRS) have nabbed one of the drivers of the popular Nigerian phone retail outlet, Slot Nigeria Limited, who allegedly stole and diverted goods worth more than N6 million and eloped with them to Kaduna from Lagos.
The goods were mainly laptops, mobile phones and its accessories.
Already, the police have assisted in recovering about N4,654,224 worth of goods from the suspect.
The suspect, Olumide Babajide, 42, an indigene of Kwara State, was tracked and arrested in Kaduna State, where he diverted the goods to after taking them from the Slot Nigeria Head office at Computer Village, Ikeja, Lagos.
Babajide who was employed in March was directed to move the consignment to the company’s Outlet in Victoria Island on May 2.
A diploma in computer science holder, Babajide told the police: “I took the good from Slot’s outlet in Ikeja. I was to deliver it to another outlet in Victoria Island, Lagos, but instead I took the goods to Pam-Pam Hotel, Ikeja, while I returned the company’s Hilux car to R & S hotel, where we normally park the company’s vehicles.
“This wasn’t the first time I would be moving laptops, mobile phones and their accessories from one outlet to the other. Since I joined the company in March and I was assigned the job of a delivery man, it had been my idea to divert the goods and abscond.
“As soon as it was 5:00 p.m. that very day, I took a drop from the hotel with the consignment to Ejigbo, where I boarded a Kaduna bound bus…. Before I got to Kaduna, I already contacted one of the buyers. She bought N1.4 million worth of phones, laptops and phone accessories while I also sold in unit to some other buyers as well.”
Babajide also allegedly told the police during interrogation that he dashed out about 10 mobile phones to passers-by, gave out two phones to a new mistress while and bought a Peugeot 206, 1999 model with new registration number DKA 859 KA, from the proceeds of his sales for N912, 000:00.
The suspect, now in police custody who is a father of three was also reported to have procured a 32 inch Samsung LCD for N62, 000:00 and went to lodge in a hotel after the deal, leaving his wife and children in his Kaduna abode.