By: Manoah Kikekon
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| Nigeria Police and Ugo the Theif |
The Badagry Police Station has rejected a notorious Theif who was identified as Ugo after officers concluded he looked like a mad person and refused to attend to the case.
Ugo, who claimed to work as a scavenger, allegedly jumped the fence into a compound at Marina, Badagry, Lagos State, on Tuesday and made away with various valuables.
Recounting the incident, Mrs Juliana narrated: “I was lying down in the room at about 1:00 p.m. At some point, I was feeling uncomfortable; by the time I opened my eyes, I saw someone kneeling down beside my purse.
When he saw that I was awake, he said, ‘Madam, please don't shout.’ Immediately I shouted. He ran outside and jumped the fence, which was how he passed to enter the premises. The people around who saw him jumping the fence apprehended him and handed him over to the officers at the Badagry Correctional Centre (Prison).
“That was when I realised he had already stolen ₦10,000 from my purse, but we couldn't find the money with him; all we saw was two fish in his pocket. Before now, we realised that things had been missing, but we never believed a thief could enter here.
“The most painful part is that he took my money, and the police were telling me he is a mad person. Someone who was pleading that I shouldn't shout how could such a person be a mad person? What if he had raped or attacked me while I was sleeping? That is how they would have just let him go.”
The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the Badagry Police Station, CSP Jude Unwokolo, reportedly told our reporter that “since the police officers have studied his look and presumed him to be a mad person, there's nothing they can do. They don't have to interrogate him before knowing he is mad, and they can't work with the information of the prison officers.”
When the officer at the counter was called upon, she claimed the Investigating Police Officers (IPOs) present concluded the suspect was a mad person immediately they saw him, which was why they rejected him.
However, a prison officer who pleaded anonymity expressed frustration over the situation. “I am disappointed in these police officers at the counter. Despite seeing that I was the one who brought the criminal, they could not even attend to me before shouting at me to return him because he looks like a mad person.
“He is someone I interrogated, and he was communicating fluently. He even told me he is from Badagry, that he is an Igbo man, and that he is a scavenger. The police have done this simply because they won't get money from him.”