Why I went into robbery – 13-year-old suspect

A 13-year-old boy simply identified as Ajayi has revealed how he was introduced into robbery at Jakande, Lagos state.

Ajayi who was paraded by the Lagos state police command alongside his accomplice identified as Balogun also 13 year said he started living in a mosque after his father divorced his mother and married another woman.

He stated that his father abandoned him at the mosque without food or money immediately he remarried. The only option was to start stealing after he was initiated by some people he met in the mosque.

He said, “After a while, the management of the mosque sent every one of us sleeping in the mosque out.

‘’ The leaders of the mosque said we constituted nuisance. After that, my father took me to his workshop where he sews clothes and asked me to be sleeping in the shop, instead of taking me home.

‘’ It was in my father’s shop where I was sleeping that I met my accomplice and we became friends. He then told me that his elder brother needed a laptop. He said if I come across someone who wanted to sell I should contact him.

“One fateful day, I was walking on a street at Jakande Estate when I saw an empty DJ shop opened.

‘’ I went straight into the shop, picked the laptop and went away, I called my friend that I have a laptop for his brother.

‘’After I had stolen the laptop, I took it to my friend’s elder brother and I told him I was selling it for N10, 000 but he said he could only afford N3, 000. Because I was hungry, I agreed to the price.

‘’He gave me N2, 000 and asked me to come later for N1, 000.

He also added that his stepmother said she did not want to see him, and that was why he started stealing.

‘’I was later arrested by the police on the street when I was going to buy food I wanted to eat on Tuesday last week about 8p.m.”

However, Balogun said he became friends with Ajayi in school and they also lived on the same street at Jakande area.

The police also arrested 27-year-old Babatunde Adejagun who bought the laptop.

The Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi who paraded the suspects before newsmen, said all the suspects would be arraigned in court after investigation had been concluded.