The police have warned Nigerians against buying used phones popularly dubbed as 'London used'. Some Nigerians prefer 'London used' phones because it is relatively cheaper than new ones
The Rapid Response squad (RRS) warned Nigerians on Friday, September 29 on their Facebook page against buying used phones which are popularly known as 'London used' without knowing sources of such phones.
To drive home their point, the RRS shared a story of 30-year-old Jamiu Adebayo who was arrested after buying a supposed 'London used' phone that was in actual sense stolen from a banker.
The police in their statement said: "Please, whenever you want to buy a fairly used phone, try to know the source. Avoid using your money to buy trouble for yourself.
Some of these so-called ‘London Used Phones’ might actually be stolen phones. "If there are no buyers, there would be low demand for stolen phones and robbers would cease to be interested in other peoples’ phones".
Going further, the RRS narrated the story of Adebayo for other Nigerians to learn from his story.
The RRS wrote: "Jamiu Adebayo, 30 was arrested in Lagos state last week by the operatives of Rapid Response Squad for buying phones from armed robbers and ‘one chance’ gangs and repackaging them as ‘London Used Phones’.
"Adebayo was tracked and found in possession of an iphone 7 belonging to one Kolade Johnson, a banker working in Lagos Island.
"Johnson, had on August 23 boarded a ‘one chance’ commercial bus around 5:45 a.m. on his way to work.
The robbers, operating with the commercial bus dispossessed him of a laptop and 2 phones, one of which was traced to Adebayo while trying to sell it to a customer in Lagos Island as a ‘London used phone’.
Also found in the possession of Adebayo were 6 additional iphones, 4 assorted phones and three MTN SIM packs, which he stated he collected from some of the robbers.
"The suspect in his confession to the police stated that he regularly bought stolen phones from three people who he is aware are members of an armed robbery and ‘one chance’ gang.
"Uche, Alubi and Pinheiro are three major guys I collect these phones from. Five out of the eleven phones traced to me were bought from Uche.
"If I tell you that I don’t know these phones are stolen phones and that some of those I get the phones from are robbers, I would be lying to you.
I know some of these phones were forcefully collected from people’, he explained. 'I buy iphone 7 with icloud at N45,000 and sell for N55,000.
Those without icloud, I buy at N150,000 and sell for N180,000. I buy iphone 6 at N65,000. I buy Samsung phones at N22,000 and sell for N27,000. I sell other phones too.
I work on the phones and disguise them as London used phones. "Adebayo also confessed that he works with a phone technician to unlock iphones with active icloud. ‘what we do is talk the owner to unlock it’.
"Our source disclosed that Uche, Pinheiro and Aluba have been on the run since the arrest of Adebayo last week Tuesday," the police said.
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