His arrest followed a complaint by villagers who hinted the police about the gang’s activities in the community at about 04:30 am.

A man identified as Adewole Adekunle has been arrested by the Police in Ogun State for allegedly vandalising and stealing parts of a power transformer belonging to the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC.

The suspect was nabbed on Friday by police officers attached to the Owode Egba Police Division, Ogun State Command, who recovered the vandalised transformer at Showo community, along Kobape axis of the Sagamu-Abeokuta highway.

The police spokesperson in Ogun, Omolola Odutola, said in a statement on Saturday that the man’s arrest followed a complaint by villagers who hinted the police about the gang’s activities in the community at about 04:30 am.

Following this information, Odutola said the DPO of Owode Egba Police Division, CSP Popoola Olasunkanmi, led his men to swiftly respond to the distress call, “leading to the arrest of one Adewole Adekunle ‘M’, who lives at 28, Eleko, Aja Lagos.”

According to her, other members of the gang fled into a nearby bush while abandoning a Volkswagen bus with a Lagos number plate, EKY 202 YG, along with its document.

Items such as an Itel phone, one digger, one chisel, 11 big spanners, 25 small bolts, one big pincher, a polythene bag containing clothes, and one big vandalized transformer were recovered from the scene, the police spokesperson stated.

She disclosed that “the police are currently expediting efforts to track down other members of the notorious vandals and arrest them for possible prosecution.”

She added that the Commissioner of Police in Ogun, Abiodun Alamutu, had ordered that the culprit be charged to court immediately investigations are concluded, as a show of deterrence to other intending vandals.

Alamutu warned scavengers to steer clear of government properties or face the full wrath of the law.