A 7-year-old primary one pupil has been arrested after he reportedly broke into a house in the Olomi area of Ibadan, Oyo State and stole two mobile phones and the sum of N4,000.
According to report, the boy also cooked rice, ate all the meat in the pot and drank the milk he found in the house.
It was gathered that the boy opened the padlock with a key to gain entry into the room of one of the wives, Mrs Adijat Fatai.
He was said to have opened the woman’s wardrobe, rummaged through clothes and stole N4,000 kept there and two mobile phones.
The boy also also went to the younger wife’s room but couldn’t find anything to steal.
He was said to have proceeded to the kitchen, cooked rice in a kettle with a camp gas and ate all the meat he found in the pot.
After the first meal, he reportedly drank the milk he also found, and began to cook rice again.
He was said to have kept the phones with a woman in the neighbourhood and ran out of the elderly woman’s house, telling her that he would be back despite her query on how the phones came about.
By the time he returned to his place of operation, the rice he put on fire had got burnt but this did not stop him from eating the remnant.
He was said to be on this when he heard footsteps and quickly ran to the backyard.
The boy was caught last Thursday, June 23, and during interrogation, he confessed to have given his grandmother N2,000 he stole.
He also admitted to opening the front door with a cutlass and cooked rice twice, drank milk and returned to the house after giving his grandmother the N2000.
“Unfortunately for me, one of those living in the house met me there but I told a lie that it was a boy who came there to steal,” the boy said.
“I have broken into four houses in the last two days before I was caught today (Thursday).” he added.
However, Mrs Adijat Fatai, whose room was burgled by the suspect, said he stole N4,000 from there and not N2000 as he claimed.
Musibau, one of the sons of Mr Hassan Fatai, whose house was burgled, said: “The boy ran to the backyard when he heard footsteps. We met all doors ajar and saw him at the backyard.
When asked about who went into the house, he said it was a boy. He said he knew the boy and took us somewhere but we found nobody. He told us again that he knew where the boy kept the flask in which he put the rice he cooked. He took us there and brought out the flask.
“He promised to bring the boy to us if he sees him. We became suspicious that he must know something about the house-breaking and stealing. We told him that we suspected him and would report him to the police. That was how he started confessing that he was the one who broke in.”
The vigilante commandant of Oluyole Local Government, Olusegun Idowu, told Tribune that he and his men had been in search of the boy’s father, Ahmed Rasheed, said to a commercial motorcycle operator.
When he was told of his son’s misdemeanour, Rasheed was said to have signed an undertaking to take him away from the community, and also agreed that the law should take its course if he refuses to take care of his son or if he comes back to the community to steal again.
Meanwhile, the victims said that they decided not to report him to the police because of his age and also because they didn’t want to spend money and time pursuing the case with the police.
