Three members of a five-man armed robbery gang arrested recently have confessed to using fake plate numbers which they use to sell off stolen motorcycles.
The suspects – Abdul Ganiyu Jamiu, Kayode Alaba and Ifeanyi Ezeanya – said changing the original plate number of a stolen motorcycle made it easier for them to sell it off.
The three men were arrested by detectives attached to the Lagos State police command at different locations in the metropolis.
Jamiu told the police how easy it was to fake a motorcycle’s plate number, even as some of the buyers were aware such a motorcycle was stolen. Most buyers of stolen motorcycles, he added, did not want to go through the pains of getting plate numbers for the stolen bikes before selling them off.
He said, “Buyers like selling off stolen motorcycles as soon as possible in order not to attract attention to themselves. Most of our buyers are at Oyingbo, Mushin, Ido and Ladipo markets. They buy them cheap and make huge profits from each transaction. They can sell a second-hand motorcycle, which ordinarily should go for between N60,000 and N80,000, for N50,000. From us, they buy such a motorcycle for between N30,000 and N40,000.
“The idea of getting fake plate numbers is that of Kayode. He has a way of altering original plate numbers. He can convert the number 6 to 8 and 2 two 9. The easiest is 1 and 11.”
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, who confirmed the arrest, said that when the state police command got information of the activities of the gang based on a reliable intelligence report, he mandated the officer in charge of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) to investigate it and bring the cultists to book.
Edgal said, “The investigation paid off on March 2, 2018 when one Abdul Ganiyu Jamiu, an armed robbery suspect whose gang specializes in snatching motorcycles at gunpoint within Lagos Island and its environs, was arrested.
“He confessed that each time they snatched any motorcycle, they contacted Kayode Alaba whose job was to register the stolen motorcycles with fake number plates and documents.”
The police chief said that while detectives were on the trail of Alaba, Ezeanya, who he described as a known motorcycle plate fake number racketeer, was arrested with a fake motorcycle plate number JJJ-407-QL and some motor licensing forged documents.
According to him, Ezeanya confessed that Alaba was the one doing the registration of fake motorcycle plate numbers for him.
“Kayode Alaba was eventually arrested at Apapa road, in Ebute-Meta, Lagos. He confessed during interrogation that he is a member of a notorious syndicate that specializes in the issuance of fake plate numbers and documents to men of the underworld for as low as N1000 to N2,000. He said he had been in the business since 2015,” Edgal said.
