The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Kwara State Command, has arrested 32-year-old suspected serial burglar, Olaleke Tope, who specialises in stealing plasma television sets.

Spokesperson of the Corps in the state, Babawale Afolabi, who disclosed this in a statement in Ilorin on Monday, August 16, said the suspect is a graduate of Business and Entrepreneur of the Ibrahim Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State.

Olaleke, a father of two, said to be a resident of No 6 Ajala Ikan Road, Adewole Estate Ilorin, was arrested on August 10, 2021, at 04:00 pm following a report by a victim.

“One Mr Hashim Bala Ibrahim of No 16 Adamu Abubakar Road GRA, Ilorin, on Tuesday came to our office to report this case. He confirmed that robbers came to his house between 03:00 am and 04:00 am and carted away two television sets namely Samsung curved UHD TV (65 inches) and TCL 4K smart TV (55 inches). The suspects ran away immediately they noticed the family were awake,” Afolabi stated.

“The complainant picks up his vehicle with the intention of coming to make an official report to the security agencies. In the process, he noticed a strange vehicle moving very slowly along their street. He made effort to stop the vehicle but the vehicle zoomed off and the complainant ran after the vehicle. He later intercepted the suspect and his vehicle along Maraba road. The suspect jumped out of the car and ran away.

Babawale also said that the security task force of the state government, Operation Harmony towed the vehicle to the NSCDC state command.

“During the investigation, a phone was found in the car. A particular number was picked from the prime suspect’s call history which led to a soft target that later assisted in the arrest of the prime suspect along Gerri Alimi axis around 20:30pm on August 10, 2021.

Tope Olaleke, the prime suspect admitted in his confessional statement and confirmed that he and one Majid who, is presently at large, broke into the complainant’s house and stole two plasma television on 10/08/2021 around 4:00hrs,” Babawale said.

“In the course of searching the prime suspect’s house and shop, about five plasma television sets worth millions of Naira were recovered among other electronic appliances.”