Police parade man who stole N13m from clergy’s office

Man claims to have stolen only N2.5 million.

The Oyo State Police Command, at its Command Headquarters, Eleyele on Tuesday, paraded Pius Edward (35), who allegedly stole N13 million from the office of the Bishop of Agbaakin Layout Diocese of the Anglican Communion of Nigeria.

Before his alleged crime, the suspect was a guard in the official residence of the Bishop.

According to the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Indabawa, after the theft, the suspect immediately fled town to hide in an hotel somewhere in Ogun State.

Mr. Indabawa further alleged that Mr. Edward’s stay in the hotel was facilitated by an immigrations officer attached to the state immigrations office.

According the police commissioner, the immigrations officer, who was well aware of the source of the money, assisted the suspect and his family in procuring travel documents to relocate to Dubai.

However, Mr. Edward ran out of luck when detectives arrested him at Idi-Iroko, a border town in Ogun State, where two separate amounts of money in different currencies – N656, 000 and $2,300 (N365, 500) – were recovered from him.

He was also said to be in possession of a black Honda saloon car and blue Mitsubishi Gallant saloon car, both unregistered.

Mr. Edward was paraded with his wife, Fausat, and mother in-law.

The suspect, who spoke with journalists admitted to committing the crime, but attributed his action to the devil.

He, however, said he only absconded with N2.5 million, and not N13 million as alleged by the police.

“The money I stole is not up to N13 million as being claimed by the police; I only stole N2.5 million from the Bishop’s office. I immediately fled to my mother in-law in Ogun State with my wife.  My wife and mother in-law do not know anything about the money. I did not even tell my wife about it. My mother in-law warned me to return the money when I told her I stole the money. I do not even tell her the exact amount, I told her it was just N300, 000,” he said.

Also paraded yesterday were five persons arrested in connection with the cultivation of marijuana. About 458 bags of the substance were recovered from the suspects. By the time the police stormed their base at Eleja Village, along Akanran area of Ona Ara Local Government of the state, the suspects had already loaded the substance in three buses and one Volvo car, ready for transit.

The suspects were identified as Stephen Osanwe, Peter Frank, John Ugoh, Macauley Akanno and George Elvis.