A 42-year-old tricycle rider, identified as Ariyo (surname withheld), has confessed to stealing parts from tricycles owned by his colleagues due to covetousness.

The confession came after Ariyo was apprehended by the Oluyole Security Surveillance Team, a security group established by the Oluyole Local Government Area of Oyo State.

Ariyo, an Ibadan indigene from a prominent household, admitted to conspiring with his friend, Muyideen (surname also withheld) a.k.a Kesari, in carrying out the theft operation.

OSST Commandant, Olusegun Idowu, provided details on the arrest, stating, “I informed the Divisional Police Officer at Sanyo police station and started making several patrols to various places to see if he and his men would be able to see the tricycle, but all efforts initially proved abortive.”

Idowu explained the sequence of events leading to the arrest, saying, “On July 23, a rider noticed a tricycle at Owode area which looked like the stolen one and informed us. When we got there, we saw that it was indeed the stolen tricycle but the engine and other parts had been removed, leaving just the body.”

Further investigations led the team to Ariyo, who had been selling engine parts.

Idowu narrated, “On August 22, we learnt that one Ariyo (a.k.a. Iyo) was selling engine parts. We went to their park and met a man posting hackney permit sticker on a tricycle. He pretended not to be the person we were looking for, but by the time he was pointed at by one of the riders, he had disappeared.”

Ariyo admitted to stealing engines and altering their numbers before fitting them into tricycles.

In his confession, he said, “I trained as a mechanical engineer but I later started riding tricycle. My first stealing was removing tyres from tricycles. That was about a year ago.”

Explaining his motive, Ariyo stated, “I will simply say that it was covetousness.”

However, Kesari, Ariyo’s friend, denied being part of the theft plan. He clarified that he provided a tricycle to Ariyo for commercial purposes and had no knowledge of Ariyo stealing an engine.

The OSST commandant confirmed the transfer of the suspects and recovered exhibits to Sanyo Division for further investigation by the police.