The suspects, which comprises of three males and a female, were apprehended by police detectives who paraded Shasha community, a suburb in Lagos that shares boundary with the tarmac of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA).
"In the early hours of today (Friday), four suspects were arrested by our detectives; who are involved in the stealing of INECs DDC machines," said Moses Onireti, commissioner of police MMIA Command.
"The names of the suspects are Suleiman Isa, male who was arrested at Shasha, Alimosho LGA; Mrs. Sumonu Modupe, who was arrested at 17 Samuel Street Akowonjo; Lawan Lateef, who was arrested at Shasha; and Bamidele Joshua, who was also arrested at Shasha. So far they've all made useful statements to the police."
Explaining that 16 of the 20 gadgets were recovered from the suspects, the police commissioner disclosed that the "vital parts" of the equipment have been removed and four of the INEC DDC machines are yet to be seen.
On how the suspects gained access to the tarmac of the international airport, Mr. Onireti disclosed that though there are certain places at the airport where police officers are restricted from entering, the path in question was a bush path, adding that the suspects must have gone through the bush before getting to the tarmac.
"We learn from mistakes, but the truth is that the police do not gain access into certain areas around the airport, and the place where this incident happened is very close to the bush from where the culprits must have passed through," he said.
"I will describe the stealing of the machines as robbery but as a constructive theft, because what we recovered were empty containers; so the 16 containers recovered were virtually empty and four o f theses machines are still missing."
Victims of circumstance
The female suspect, Mrs. Modupe who was once a cleaner art the airport, said that though her brothers, the other suspects sold the gadgets to one Yemi, who deals in the sales of Computers at Ikeja, they were all "victims of unfortunate circumstance."
According to her, the brother, Lawan stumbled on the gadgets when he went into the bush to defecate, adding that upon discovering laptops and other equipment packed in a bag by unknown persons, he called her and the others.
"They brought it to me and I asked them how did they get it and they told me. I asked them to return it where they got it from, but they refused and said they will sell it at computer village in Ikeja. I refused and asked them that if they cannot return it, they should go and burn it instead of the laptops to cause trouble among them," she said.
"That was the mistake I made, for I did not know it was this much and that they refused my warning and sold it to Yemi who is no where to be found now. They laptops have INEC written on them and they are other information on them which say that the machine belong to the Federal Republic of Nigeria."
The commissioner, however, pleaded with the public to alert the police of any useful information that will lead to the recovery of the other missing gadgets and the vital parts of the ones already recovered, as well as will lead to the arrest of Mr. Yemi.
"The suspects will be charged to court and we want the public to help us with information that will help us further in our search and further investigations," he said.
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