The Ogun State Police Command has arrested a suspect identified as Ridwan Akintoye, who was believed to specialise in stealing mobile phones of patients on admission at the Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta.
Our correspondent further learnt that visitors who had come to see their loved ones in the sick bay were not left out of Akintoye’s theft as reports of multiple phone robberies dominated the medical centre.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the suspect was said to have frequented the hospital from Lagos under the guise of voluntary blood donation while targeting unsuspecting patients and their loved ones.
An eyewitness who did want to be mentioned in the media revealed that the increasing cases of phone theft forced the management of the medical centre to place undercover surveillance on the premises.
The eyewitness told our correspondent that the surveillance was meant to monitor the activities of the visitors on and around the premises.
Meanwhile, unaware that there was undercover surveillance in the area, the 24-year-old was said to have been exposed while stealing the mobile phones of some unsuspecting victims.
Our correspondent further learnt that Akintoye fled the scene after suspecting that he had been exposed.
Speaking, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Omolola Odutola, who confirmed the incident to our correspondent on Monday, said the suspect had confessed to having been coming from Lagos State to commit robbery in the facility.
Odutola said, “The phones he stole included the Infinix Hot 9 and Android TCL belonging to Hameed Aderibigbe and Folarin Israel. We arrested him when he was fleeing the premises.”
Contact: [email protected]
