A 23-year-old man, Quadri Qudus, who allegedly stole 21 telephones from admission seekers in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, has been nabbed.
According to available information, the man fled after allegedly committing the crime on July 5, 2022.
But he has been arrested by operatives of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps.
Qudus reportedly stole the phones from students writing the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board at a Computer-based test centre in Ilorin.
Qudus was said to be selling face mask at the centre.
He was reported to have pretended to be a Good Samaritan and collected the phones from the candidates since they were not allowed to enter the examination centre with them.
However, before the students could finish writing their examination papers, the suspect had disappeared with the phones.
The spokesperson of the Kwara State Command of the NSCDC, Olasunkanmi Ayeni, said Qudus was arrested in Ilorin after about one month of committing the alleged crime.
Ayeni said: “Quadri Qudus pretended to be selling face masks at a JAMB examination centre and the student out of trust put the phones in his custody and he ran away with their phones.
“He was eventually caught by our men in Ilorin.”
Quadri, however, denied running away with the phones.
He told newsmen: “The phones were actually stolen from where I kept them.
“I ran away out of fear of what would happen to me.
“I had to run away for my dear life before the owners came out of the examination centre because they would have beaten and lynched me if they learned that their phones have been stolen.”