Two car snatchers arrested at PDP Headquarters, Abuja

Tunde Opalana, Abuja

Two car snatching professionals who identified themselves as James Ayuba from Nasarawa State and Abdul Bello from Kwara State were on Tuesday arrested beside the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national Headquarters, Abuja while attempting to steal a car.

The duo who are in their mid 30s were arrested along Michael Okpara Street, Wuse Zone 6, adjacent PDP Headquarters, Abuja. While Ayuba claims he lives in Sharp corner, Mararaba and an electrician, Bello says he is an auto mechanic and has no business with car snatching but was on a job hunt.

Luck ran out of the criminals when a street photographer noticed an unholy movement around a Honda car popularly called Honda Baby boy with the registration number Abuja BF 438 KWL packed along the road but quickly locked them down and alerted the police stationed at the PDP headquarters.

However Ayuba who claimed innocent of the allegation also denied knowledge of his accomplice, claiming that he was passing by to submit his Curriculum Vitae (CV) at the Federal Island Revenue Service, an argument that was punctured when the police dialed the number of his colleague with his phone and ‘Acid’ appeared as caller name.

As the interrogation was going on, staff of FIRS and several others who had lost their cars to street car criminals invaded the PDP secretariat, demanding that the criminals should face the full weight of the law so that they can assist them towards the recovery of the missing vehicles.

One of the police officers who spoke on grounds of anonymity said that the criminals have confessed to the crime. According to the police, they said that their intention was to steal the car battery but denied the allegation that they are profession car criminals.

The police further informed that they will be taken to Wuse Police station for further interrogation even as staff of FIRS demanded that they be taken to the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (F-SARS) Office.

Items recovered from them include scissors, spanners, keys and other technical tools.