BY BENSON OKOBI-ALLANAH
For Onyebuchi Anekwe, what he decided on as an alternative means of livelihood after losing his job eventually landed him in worse trouble. Yet, he is quick to lament that it was the handwork of the devil and his frustrations as a jobless person.
He insists that stealing is not an in-borne trait, the reason he learnt a trade- auto-mechanics, in Benin-City, then ventured into driving after he decided to quit being a mechanic because of he was ill-equipped, that is not having the required tools to work with to enable him attract patronage.
Anekwe, residing at Omeligboma near Asaba Toll Gate, in his late 30s, said going into crime was the least thing he ever envisaged, but somehow fell for the ‘devil’ due to the frustrating hardship he was exposed to after losing his job as a commercial bus driver plying Asaba-Onitsha route.
Though he confessed it was only recently he got involved in car theft before he was caught, the one that ‘brought his legs out’ was his second attempt, he regrets bringing disgrace to himself and a smirch to his family’s name.
On that night the car theft was carried out at about 10pm, a man parked his latest Toyota Corolla model ash coloured car at the popular Summit junction, Asaba, along the ever-busy Asaba-Benin expressway obviously unaware that there was a man lurking in the street corner and about to strike.
Slim-built and dark-complexioned, Onyebuchi Anekwe from Ayamelu in Ayamelu Local Government Area of Anambra State, sneaked to where the car was parked, opened the car’s door with a screw driver, after which he disconnected the kick, then used another Toyota key he said he picked from somewhere to open the neck of the vehicle.
Being an auto mechanic once based in Benin-City before coming down to Asaba to take up driving as a commercial bus driver on the Asaba-Onitsha route, he had no difficulty in waking the car and putting the stationery vehicle in motion.
He drove straight to Omeligboma where he resides, and got the car covered with tarpaulin, ostensibly to have it moved the next day to where a buyer may already be waiting.
But in an interview with newsmen, after an eagle-eyed security outfit, Chuks Vigilante based in Asaba Tollgate area nabbed him; he said his aim of stealing the car was not to sell it, but rather to use it for Uber business within Asaba, and its environs.
The vehicle was recovered from him without the number plate. And when asked where he kept the number plates, the front and back number plates, he said when he removed them, he threw them away, that it was some boys he believed were condemned iron scavengers he saw that removed them.
Chuks Vigilante Chairman, Chukwudi Dickson Nwaogalayan said he had contacted the DC Ops at the police headquarters, saying before he moved into action he called him to get him informed about the car theft, and the subsequent arrest of Anekwe and recovering of the car from him.
He used the occasion to appeal to relevant authorities to extend their assistance to them, saying they are doing a nice job by helping to fish out criminal elements in the society.
‘Just to ensure that the recovered vehicle gets to the right owner, I placed a radio announcement, using the Crown FM in Asaba here. We are trying our best to assist other security agents; assistance should be extended to us by way of providing us with logistics.’
