BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
A 35-year-old mechanic, Akinola Olatunji, has landed in trouble after one of his colleagues allegedly bolted away with a vehicle belonging to a client and had remained incommunicado.
The Point gathered that Olatunji, who operates at the popular Ajegunle motor spare parts market in Osogbo, capital of Osun State, was given a Mercedes Benz by a client to repair.
After fixing the car, which had been in his possession since April, last year, the mechanic said he took it to his colleague, a rewirer, for him to do some electrical repair before returning it to the owner. The rewirer was said to have switched off his phone ever since his disappearance.
“I had been waiting for the rewirer to finish working on the car so that I can return it to my customer but he was delaying. After I finished repairing the car, I discovered that it needed some rewiring, I told the owner and she approved that I should take it to a rewirer. That was why I took it to the rewirer. Two weeks after he took possession of the car, his number had not been reachable. I visited his workshop, he was not there,” the mechanic narrated.
After receiving complaints from the car owner identified as Mrs. Oladapo Oluwakemi, the Police Station at Dugbe in Osogbo, arrested Olatunji.
It was gathered that the Police could not arrest the reportedly fleeing rewirer as the mechanic could not raise money for the tracking of the suspect.
“We asked him to give us money for us to track the rewirer and arrest him but he (Olatunji) told us he doesn’t have money,” one of the Investigation Police Officers told The Point.
Meanwhile, the police have arraigned Olatunji before an Osogbo Magistrate’s Court and slammed him with offences bordering on conspiracy and theft of the car.
The charge read, “That you Akinola Olatunji and one other at large, sometimes in the month of April, 2022 at Ajegunle area in Osogbo, the Osogbo Magisterial District, did conspire together to commit felony to wit stealing and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under section 422 of the Criminal Code Cap 34 Vol II Laws of Osun State of Nigeria, 2002.
“That you Akinola Olatunji and one other at large on the same date and place in the aforementioned Magisterial District did steal one Mercedes Benz with Lagos State registration number SMK-977-CB valued Three Million Naira (N3,000,000:00) only, property of one Oladapo Oluwakemi and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 383 and punishable under section 390(9) of the Criminal Code Cap 34 Vol II Laws of Osun State of Nigeria, 2002.”
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the allegations. The defence counsel, Kehinde Adepoju, prayed the court to grant his client bail.
Adepoju described the mechanic as a “victim of circumstance” and informed the court that Olatunji was an HIV patient and that he hadbeen on antiviral drugs. He urged the court to consider his health condition in granting him bail.
The police prosecutor, Inspector Adeoye Kayode, did not object the oral bail application.
Ruling on the bail prayer, Magistrate M. A. Olatunji granted the defendant bail in the sum of N500,000 with two sureties in the same amount.
The Magistrate said one of the sureties must be in Grade Level 12 in Osun Civil Service while the other should be a house owner. She said the addresses of the sureties must be verified by the Police. The matter was adjourned till June 7 for hearing.
