A 69-year-old retired Assistant Superintendent of Police, Fidelis Ewona, who was arrested along with others for stealing two generators, has blamed the devil for his actions.
He also pleaded with authorities to forgive him for his act of indiscretion.
Speaking in an interview with Northern City News after he was paraded by the Bauchi State Police Command, Ewona, who hails from Cross River State, said he had worked with an Abuja-based Chinese company, ZTE, which installed the generators but that he was no longer an employee of the firm.
Narrating his involvement in the crime he said, “I left Cross River State on Monday, January 14, 2019, and arrived Bauchi that same night. Then I asked one Malam Yusuf to meet me where I was. He was a staff member of the company I was working with; he is based in Maiduguri and he came.
“We both visited the site on Tuesday in preparation to remove the generators; on Wednesday, we went and removed that generator some few minutes to 12pm, nothing more than that.”
The father of 12, who said he retired from the Cross River State Police Command in 2011, joined the company afterwards but later left to establish a business of his own.
He said, “I am a retired policeman. I retired as an ASP from the Cross River State Command. I retired in 2011. This is just my first time and doing this before I was caught, I have not done it before. This thing just came like that. If I tell you that I had foreknowledge of this thing, I am lying to myself not to talk of telling you that I knew I would do this.”
Asked what he wanted to do with the two generators, he stated that although he knew the generators were not his, but the property of the Federal Government, he added, “I wanted to sell them and make some money.”
The retired ASP, who admitted to the crime, blamed the devil for his action.
He also confessed that he wrote a letter to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps to “assist me with security to inspect a site. I told them that I was a staff member of the company. I showed them the identity card of my former place of work, so they gave me the security.”
He added, “I am guilty of what I am being charged for; I am guilty of stealing the generators. I removed the generators without deciding yet how much I was going to sell them; I don’t even know their prices in the market.
“It was the devil that pushed me into stealing; I don’t think I will say more than that; that is the truth. I even stated it in the statement I made to the police that I am sorry for what had happened.”
