I’m not a car thief, I only drove it from Abuja to Delta without dealer’s knowledge —Suspect

TRIBUNE

After his arrest for allegedly absconding with a car from an Abuja car stand, 25-year-old Meshach Isinugo a.k.a Big Shark has denied the allegation, saying that he only took the car he was test-driving to Delta State for business. Big Shark said he decided to quickly use the car when the dealer, who sat in the passenger seat during test driving, didn’t return quickly after going to get cash to buy fuel in a filling station.

The suspect said that the day after he got to Delta, the car dealer angered him by posting his picture on the internet and calling him a car thief, as well as threatening that the police were after him. He said that the dealer’s action made him to switch off his phone so that he would be unreachable before he was eventually arrested in Benin, Edo State.

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Wale Abass, at a press briefing, said that before the suspect’s arrest, the command received a complaint from a car dealer in Abuja, simply identified as Rilwan, on July 3 that a vehicle, Mercedes Benz saloon car 2021 model, was stolen from his car stand by Big Shark who disguised as an intending buyer. The dealer told the police that the suspect absconded with the said vehicle during a test drive on June 30.

“Armed with available intelligence, operatives of the CP Decoy Squad stormed Ughelli town at about 0115hours (1:15am) of 3/7/2023 and recovered the said Mercedes Benz abandoned in a bush along Oteri Road by Doctors Quarters Ughelli North Local Government Area.”

Nigerian Tribune gathered that the operatives began a manhunt for the suspect which yielded result when he was picked at a park in Benin, Edo State.

The suspect, who told the Nigerian Tribune that Big Shark was a childhood nickname that he grew up with, gave his background information: “I’m from Ughelli in Delta State, but I live in Abuja. I’m into foreign exchange and bureau de change business. I have been doing this since seven years. I started along that line when I was in secondary school. My business is at Instabul Airport, Turkey, so I used to shuttle between there and Nigeria. I started it there in 2021. I returned from Instabul in May after general elections.”

On how he got into police custody, he said: “I was arrested on July 6 for car theft after I was tracked by the police. Actually, I moved the car, from Abuja to Delta State.”