2 Top Music Artistes Arrested For Robbery

CYRIACUS IZUEKWE

Two music artistes, arrested for robbery by the Rapid Response Squad unit of the Lagos Police Command, have confessed that they were forced into robbery by the need to survive the hunger occasioned by the Covid–19 lockdown.

P.M.EXPRESS reports that the suspects namely, Chinonso Michael, 25, an Afro hip-hop singer and Chimelu Victory, 22, a pianist, were arrested last week Wednesday in company of 5 other suspects at their residence at 4, Modupe Young Thomas Estate, Ajah, Lagos by the Decoy Team of RRS.

The duo had on 10th April, 2020, ordered pay on delivery, an iPhone 11 Pro Max valued at N450,000 on an online platform, Jiji.com from their service charge apartment in Ajah. 

On receipt of the consignment from a delivery man, one Anifowoshe Itunu, one of the suspects, Chimelu, generated a fake bank alert for the despatch rider first and later, with the connivance of Chinonso escaped from the apartment after they had tied the despatch rider down with a bottle of beer.

The suspects then allegedly sold the iPhone 11 Pro Max to a buyer in Ogba, Ikeja Lagos for the sum of N350,000, which was transferred into Chinonso’s bank account.

The suspects, who jumped off naked from the first floor to the ground floor of the apartment on sighting the Police, confessed that the crime was the third time they sold iPhone 11 Pro Max during the Covid-19 lockdown, adding that two of the phones were carted online with stolen credit cards.

According to sources, Chinonso fractured his arm and bruised him chin immediately he landed on the ground floor. He then instantly took to the streets naked before he was arrested and taken to the hospital.

In their confessions, Chinonso and Chimelu, who are regular performers in some Lagos night clubs, separately attributed their actions to the Covid-19 lockdown, stressing that during the lockdown there was nothing going on and they did not have anything to eat for like two weeks. They claimed that they were already owing all the store owners in the neighbourhood; nobody was ready to sell to them on credit anymore and they then had to device a means to survive the lockdown.

Chinonso, who just changed his stage name from Authority to Happy-Boy, said that he joined Chimelu at his Ajah residence in March, 2020 and that he was his music teacher in Aba, Abia State, before he moved to Lagos.

Chimelu, who is popularly called Apostle Swag, recently resigned as a Lekki Church keyboardist to pursue a career in music, stated that he used to have regular shows in Lagos clubs before the lockdown.He added that ‘the plan of a service charge apartment was to create the impression that they lived there in the mind of the despatch rider.

The suspects confessed that apart from their musical careers, they also engaged in internet fraud.Exhibits recovered from them included: one iPhone 11Pro Max, three laptops, two flash drives, two WiFi connection modems, two memory cards, four SIM cards, one Samsung phone and one iPhone.

The suspects have been transferred to FSARS for further investigations and  prosecution.Commenting on the development, Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, maintained that the internet is a fertile ground for opportunities but the State Command will not allow criminals use it as avenue to exploit legitimate business owners.