Chioma Igbokwe
At the age of 25, Daniel Egbule, a suspected car burglar’s only wish is to turn back the hand of time to the year his late mother told him the reason he was sent to a military secondary school, in Lagos.
Now an ex-convict, Daniel was re-arrested by operatives of Inspector General of Police, Intelligence Response Team (IRT) in Lagos over several alleged cases of robbery. He was declared wanted when a businessman, identified as Abubakar petitioned the IG in Abuja alleging that his house at Ikeja GRA was burgled severally and valuables worth millions of naira carted away, especially parts of his exotics cars. Detectives deployed by the head of the team, DCP Abba Kyari were said to have trailed him with the help of intelligence report generated from the police Technical Intelligence Unit (TIU) in Abuja. He was arrested in Ijora Olopa, a densely populated area in Apapa. Also arrested was one Henry Eze, another suspected burglar whose job is to help Daniel sell all the stolen goods.
Journey into crime world
Going down memory lane, Daniel aged 25 told Saturday Sun that his secondary school classmates who were already professional fraudsters lured him into crime at the age of 14.
“I am a native of Agbor in Delta State and I was born and bred in Lagos. My mother was an Assistant Superintendent of Police before she died months after a spiritual attack. Her legs were swollen and she died months later. My father could not take the shock, so he died two weeks after.
“While they were alive, my mother decided to send me to Command Day Secondary School, Ikeja, Lagos because she believed that I will be disciplined there. She was always busy because of the nature of her job. She told me that this was the only place that I can get good training since she is not available to train me. I assured her that I would be of good behavior, so that she will let me be.
“While in school, I made friends with bad boys who drew my attention away from my studies. When I was 14 years old and in JSS3, my friends taught me how to defraud people through online dating. Instead of going to school, we will pack an extra cloth and change into them on our way to school. We will enter the nearest cyber café and do our stuff.” On how he did it, Daniel said that he opened a dating site on Facebook and Twitter. “I went to the international modeling site and got the pictures of international models both white and black. I will upload the pictures on the dating site and so many men will subscribe.
Most of those who will subscribe are foreigners and my targets are Americans. My major hit was when one man sent 800 dollars to me while I was still in JSS3. I was so happy and decided to stop wasting my time in school. My parents thought that I was in school and they did not figure it out till they died three years after.”
According to him, “After the untimely death of my parents, my uncle took me and my siblings to Ijora. My uncle advised me to go and learn how to drive as he cannot afford to train us in school. I could not continue with my Yahoo business because policemen were arresting people at the cyber café and we were all warned to stop or will be sent to jail.
“I had survived somehow, so I started going to Apapa port to hustle and during weekends, I will go to the stadium to play ball. I also loved music especially the songs of Olamide. I know all his songs, that’s why they call me Baddo. It was during one of such visits that I met Emeka and so many others who introduced me to car burglary. We will sneak into any car that is parked in an open place and steal essential parts especially the brain box.
“In 2017, I was arrested in the act at the national stadium, Surulere, Lagos and charged to court. I was sentenced to one year imprisonment. After our release from jail, my uncle warned me to stay away from his house. I had to start sleeping under bridge in Ijora and naturally my friends over there are thieves.
“We started stealing to survive but I was determined to change. With the little money that I made, I attended Lagos computer school, in Ikeja where I got diploma in Information and Communication Technology. I still couldn’t get a job, so I decided to return to Apapa to get a job as a truck driver. I was told to get a lot of documents including a driver’s license. That was why I decided to go back to stealing.”
Nemesis
According to Daniel, one of the areas they find easy to steal from is Ikeja. “Everyone thinks that Ikeja is well guarded, that is why most criminals stay away from that axis. Normally at night, we do stroll around the various clubs and streets that do not have a gate. Unlike most areas, there are touts or OPC members who will be assigned to watch cars but in Ikeja especially GRA such a thing is not allowed. This is the reason most of the time we visit Ikeja to burgle cars.”
On the theft that led to his arrest, Daniel said during one of his weekly patrols in April, he discovered a large compound with only a bungalow. “At one end of the compound were several cars parked. We also made all kinds of noise just to ascertain if there is any dog or security man on duty. The next day, I came with a friend and we broke the glass of a Range Rover, stole the phones that we found inside it and went to the next car. I took the brain box and was about to move to the next car when a pregnant woman walked out of one of the rooms. We fled with what we were able to get. “I sold the brain box for N30, 000 each and decided to use the iPhone. I got a driver’s license and was on my way to submit my documents for the job in Apapa when policemen arrested me. I am terribly sorry and I wanted to stop for good. I never believed that the compound belongs to a well-known politician that can inform the police to arrest us. I am truly sorry and I don’t want them to send me back to prison. It is now that I understand the reason why my parents wanted me to go to school.”
Criminal exploits
Recalling some of his exploits, Daniel said that he has lost count of the number of brain box of cars he has stolen but certainly not less than 20 since he started car burglary. “I have lost count of the number of cars that we stole their brain box in Nigeria, I can remember that I have entered about 10 cars in Ikeja in 2019 alone.”
The second suspect, Henry Eze, a native of Orlu in Imo state, who is also part of the syndicate insisted that he was not part of the group that normally raid Ikeja. “The reason why I have not gone to prison is because I respect myself. I go to areas where if I am caught, the owner of the car will simply ask me to repair their car. I sell cloths in Yaba during the day and at night, I will join some of my friends to go and hustle.
“I have been caught severally, and the owners will simply ask me to repair their car. The man that I normally sell the brain box to is a mechanic, so he will quickly help me out. I never knew that Daniel did not buy the phone when he asked for my sim card. He told me that he needed to use my sim card to check if the phone was working, I asked him if it was stolen and he said no. It was weeks later that the police arrested me and insisted that I have an iPhone that was stolen. I told them that I do not know what they were talking about until I received a hot slap. It was then that I remembered that Daniel used my sim card to test his new iPhone.”