Operatives of the Amotekun Corps have arrested a 17-year-old suspected serial cable thief after he was electrocuted while trying to vandalise a transformer in AKure, Ondo State capital. 

The corps commander, Adetunji Adeleye, said the suspect, Sunday Adegbulu, is a Junior Secondary School III student of the Commercial Secondary School, Akure, who belonged to a cartel specialised in vandalising electricity transformers and stealing cables. 

“Unfortunately, while cutting the cables, electricity was supplied and burnt half of his body,” said the Amotekun commander.

Mr Adeleye said that the suspect was rushed to three different hospitals, and upon hearing about the incident, Amotekun operatives trailed him to another location where his gang members moved him.

“He was to be killed so that he would not reveal his sponsors. We had to revive him, brought him to the health facility of the corps, and we spent a lot of money to make him come back to life. He was able to tell us nine other gang members, including their godfather, who is on the run. We are the trail of the godfather,” he added.

The suspect told journalists he belonged to a three-man gang specialised in stealing electric cable and selling it for different amounts to make gains. 

“It was my second operation. But this latest incident happened on April 28, and only two of us went to the transformer. I never knew that there was going to be an electricity supply. It’s the devil that pushed me to the crime,” he said. 

Master Adegbulu’s arrest comes as many local communities have been plunged into darkness, mostly due to vandals’ activities.

Last week, members of the Irese, Aaye, and Ikota communities in Ifedore LGA experienced an erratic power supply after vandals stole cables from the step-down/transformer supplying the three towns. 

Meanwhile, the Amotekun corps also arrested 44 others, one of whom is a suspected kidnapper who had been terrorising members of some communities in the state. 

Mr Adeleye, who revealed the suspect identified simply as Jubril, said he was nabbed barely 48 hours after he was released on bail by a magistrate court for the same crime.

“The residents and traditional ruler of his village called us that three people were to be kidnapped by the gang of this same suspect, but we were able to apprehend them,” he stated.

The Amotekun boss pleaded with the state residents to always provide timely information on criminals’ activities in their domain, adding that suspects would be charged to court upon conclusion of the investigation.