The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps has arrested a 23-year-old man identified as Quadri Qudus who allegedly stole 21 mobile phones from Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination candidates in Ilorin, Kwara State, in July this year.
Qudus was alleged to have stolen the phones from the candidates while sitting the examination at a Computer-Based Test centre in Ilorin on July 5, 2022.
He was said to have pretended selling face masks at the centre and collected the phones from the candidates because they were not allowed to enter the examination centre with their phones.
However, before the candidates could complete their examination papers, the suspect had disappeared with the phones.
Parading Qudus alongside two other suspects at the corps’ state command headquarters, the command’s spokesperson, Olasunkanmi Ayeni, said that the suspect was arrested by the NSCDC’s operatives in Ilorin a month after committing the alleged crime.
Ayeni said that Qudus stole 21 phones belonging to the UTME candidates in Ilorin on July 5, 2022.
He said, “Qudus pretended to be selling face masks at a UTME examination centre and the candidates out of trust put the phones in his custody and he ran away with their phones. He was eventually caught by our men in Ilorin.”
Speaking with journalists, Qudus denied fleeing with the phones, saying they were stolen from him and he ran away to avoid anger of their owners.
He said, “The phones were stolen from where I kept them. I ran away out of fear of what would happen to me. I ran for my dear life before the owners came out of the examination centre because they could beat and lynch me if they heard that their phones were stolen.”
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