Police arrest pair ‘who strangled Uber driver with belt’ in Lagos

Detectives attached to the anti-kidnapping squad of the Lagos state police command have arrested two suspects who posed as passengers and killed an Uber driver, in an attempt to steal his vehicle.

The suspects and one other, who is at large, strangled the driver, Innevosa Emmanuel and disposed him of his KIA RIO salon car marked KTU 594DM.

NAN reports that the suspects always go after uber drivers with the intention of killing them and stealing their cars, to resell them to new buyers.

The suspects boarded the vehicle from Ikeja to take them to Ogba, Oke-Ira during which they suddenly ordered the driver to make a U-turn and take them to Oremeji street, Obawole area of Ogba, where he was strangled with a belt by the robbers and the vehicle was driven away.

According to one of the suspects, he said they were three that participated in the killing of the driver.

“I and Michael met at Ogba where I went to drink and we became friends. I told him how difficult things were for me that I needed to relocate to Benin to start all over again.

“It was at this point that Michael told me about a deal that could fetch me some money that we could get a car and then sell it to his boss.

“Michael then told me about one Alex (Emmanuel) who had a vehicle and we agreed to meet the following day. Since then we had been meeting and discussing how to buy the vehicle.

“On the fateful day the Uber driver came, I was with Michael in his office and his friend Destiny was with him but I don’t know if he discussed the vehicle deal with Destiny.

“Around 9:30p.m, we called the Uber driver to come and pick us at Tantalizer eatery at Ogba. I and Destiny were inside the vehicle with the driver, but Michael was outside while I was holding the belt.

“Immediately I put the belt across the driver’s neck, Destiny dragged the belt and we strangled him. When we were satisfied that he was dead, we took his corpse to Oremeji Street and dumped him in front of a church around 10:30 p.m., without anybody noticing us.

“After killing the driver, we took the vehicle to Michael’s boss to sell it. The buyer then inquired from us where we got the vehicle from and Michael told him that we killed the owner.

“The buyer then said we should take the car away and Michael said we should take it to his house and park it outside, before taking it to another buyer in Benin.

“Later we were tracked to Benin, arrested and brought back to Lagos.” the suspect said.

Fatai Owoseni, Lagos state commissioner of police, who paraded the suspects at the command headquarters, said the command received a report of a missing Uber driver, whose car was stolen and the driver missing.

Owoseni said since then, it has been an issue of concern and detectives through their sustained efforts towards the missing driver, arrested two suspects two days ago in connection with the missing driver.

“The suspects posed as passengers, strangled the Uber driver and dumped his remains at Ogba and the vehicle was taken to Delta State, where it was recovered and the suspects arrested.”

The Police boss said the suspects would soon be charged to court.