One Paul Niwa, a hotelier, has been arrested over alleged stealing of a bus, the police in Ogun State have said.
The vehicle, a T4 Volkswagen bus with registration number AAB 22 XB, reportedly belongs to a logistics transport company in the Sagamu area of the state.
According to the command police spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, 47-year-old Niwa was arrested alongside one Michael Odunayo.
He disclosed that the suspects were arrested on Friday, April 21, in Elediye village in Sagamu.
He said the suspects were arrested following a report lodged at Ewu-Oliwo divisional headquarters, Sagamu by the driver of the bus, one Anifowose Kazeem.
According to Oyeyemi, the driver told the police that he parked the vehicle by the roadside at Sagamu interchange when it developed a mechanical fault while he was driving it along the Abeokuta-Sagamu expressway.
He said when he got to where the vehicle was parked the following morning, the bus was no longer there, and all efforts to find it proved abortive.
“Upon the report, the DPO, Ewu-Oliwo division, CSP Toyosi Bello, detailed detectives to unravel those behind the disappearance of the said vehicle.
“The detectives, who embarked on a technical and intelligence-based investigation were able to trace the missing vehicle to a compound of A@Z Hotel at Elediye village, Shagamu, where it had been butchered into pieces to be sold in parts.
“The owner of the hotel, Paul Niwa, was promptly arrested and taken into custody.
“His arrest led to the apprehension of the second suspect, 27-year-old Michael Odunayo.
“On interrogation, Odunayo confessed to the police that it was himself and one Eri Adeyemi, now at large, that towed the vehicle away from where it was parked at about 2am and took it to Paul Niwa, who was a regular buyer of such stolen vehicles, and he bought it at the rate of N300,000,” Oyeyemi said.
He added that preliminary investigation by the police revealed that, Paul Niwa is a serial receiver of stolen vehicles, which he dismantled and sold in pieces.
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