Operatives of Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested a driver for conniving with three other persons to divert 600 bags of flour before bolting with the truck.
It was gathered that the suspect, Garuba Lawal, 36, a native of Kwara State connived with three others now at large also dismembered the truck and sold the parts.
The police said he diverted the 600 bags of flour to Sagamu, Ogun State, saying the product was thereafter given out to a buyer.
Garuba, who was employed by new generation company the day the incidence occured, to move the 600 bags of flour to a bakery in Ibadan, Oyo State, was baited with N2 million by his accomplices to do their bidding.
The suspect, in his statement to the police disclosed that after loading on Sunday, at the Nigeria Flour Mills in Apapa. A young man, whose name was later given as Ismaila from Oyo State, approached him for a discussion.
“He invited me close to my truck just as I was about to drive it out of the loading bay. He asked me how much I have made since I have been driving truck. I replied him that I just joined the haulage company.
“He asked again, have you ever seen money in your life? I said no. He asked me again, if you see N2 million, what would you do with it? I answered him that I would quit this truck driving job. Then, he told me that he would introduce me to a deal. That was how we started”.
Garuba continued, “while his two other colleagues were waiting in the Toyota Corrolla they brought. He took me to a corner and brought a cowrie. He told me that I would have to swallow the cowrie as a sign of bond that anybody that divulge the secret between us would die instantly.
“I took the cowrie and swallowed it. Immediately I did that, I observed that whatever instruction he gave me, I was just obeying it without a second thought.
At this point Garuba, in company of the three accomplices diverted the 600 bags of flour to Sagamu instead of its scheduled destination on a Sunday night and getting to Sagamu around 2:25 a.m on Monday.
The police said their Investigation revealed that the gang that diverted the flour are the same gang which has been involved in several diversions of other products.