A 21-year-old armed robber, Yusuf Ajibade has been remanded in prison custody for using a cutlass to dispossess a teenager of his phone at Okerube Bus Stop, in the Ikotun area of Lagos State.
The suspect, who allegedly confessed to the crime while in custody, reportedly said he attacked the teenager and cut him with the cutlass because the 17-year-old refused to release the phone to him.
Ajibade, in his confessional statement to the Lagos Police Command, said he sold the phone to a random passerby that same night.
He said, “I was standing with my cutlass at Okerube Bus Stop when the boy was passing by. I requested that he give me his Android phone, but he refused and started shouting. So, I used the cutlass to cut him. I sold the phone to a man for N10,000 that same night.”
The defendant, who was arraigned before the Yaba Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, January 18, 2023, said the stolen phone he sold for N10,000 was valued at N80,000 at the time.
The police prosecutor, Thomas Nurudeen, who held brief for Haruna Magaji, said the offense was committed on Sunday, October 23, 2022, adding that it contravened Section 297 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2015.
Having remanded the defendant in custody, the Magistrate, P.R. Nwaka adjourned the case till Tuesday, February 14, 2023.