By: Sandra Nnaemeka
Some residents of Ikeja area of Lagos State, on Thursday, apprehended a man for allegedly stealing bras and pants from where they were spread.
It was learnt that some residents, who saw the man while allegedly collecting the underwear, accosted him and demanded to know the content of the bag he was carrying.
He was said to have threatened to deal with the people for insulting him, but unmoved by his threat, some youths forced the man to open the bag.
An eyewitness, Bayo Ojo, said when the man finally opened the bag, bras, pants and other clothing items were found in it.
According to him, the crowd asked the man what he wanted to do with the items, but he kept mute.
Ojo stated that before the crowd could descend on the man, policemen came and took him away.
He said, “We were upstairs and all of a sudden, one of us, Tunde, saw a man picking up bras, pants and some clothes that were spread outside.
“When he was done, he looked in different directions to ensure that nobody saw him. As he began walking away with those items, we came down and alerted other residents, who stopped him.
“Rather than being remorseful, the man began threatening that he would deal with us for insulting him.
“When the people asked him to open the bag he was carrying, he bragged that he was going to beat them up. But when the people forced him to open the bag, they were surprised to see bras, pants and clothes in the bag.”
Two days earlier, two young men had been nabbed in Lagos for picking up female underwear from where they were spread.
When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Chike Oti, said the incident had not been reported to the police.
He said, “Nothing like that was reported at our end. I called all the divisions in the Area ‘F’; I even called the commander, who also called the divisional police officers one by one, and they said the incident of bras and pants theft by a man had not been reported to them.
“Even if it happened, the people did not report to us.”