Thirty-five-year old Kemoue Justin is presently cooling his feet in Police cell in Logbaba. The population of Bedi, a neighbourhood of Douala, arrested 35-year-old Kemoue Justin, on Tuesday January 31, as he struggled to make away with stolen property. Putting on police uniform, he was caught transferring the booties from a warehouse in the neighbourhood. Reports gathered say a gang of unidentified men had earlier broken into and cleared the packing store of hundreds of oil paints at about 8 am. Informed neighbours mobilised against the gang of armed thieves who abandoned hundreds of the oil paints outside and disappeared. The arrested Kemoue Justin, who hails from Bafang, told police officers of the Tenth Police District that he was only helping to transfer the booties for a group of people he never knew were thieves. Some people of the Bedi mob alerted the police after the catch and hinted them that the man had claimed to be a detective. It goes that the population quickly hemmed in when discovering that most members of the gang had left the building transporting a part of the property to a nearby unidentified vehicle.

But the alleged robber, who carried no weapon on him, told the police that the uniform were given to him by the men he claims not to know. He said the thieves came to him, begged him to help them transfer the paints from the outside of the warehouse, giving him the uniform to wear. “I didn’t know they were thieves,” he pleaded the police, before newsmen at the Central Police Station No. 2, in Logbaba where he was later conveyed to yesterday. The alleged robber, who put on a pair of dark trousers and a shirt beneath the uniform, further explained that the thieves had told him they picked up the uniforms in a compound from unspecified neighbourhood in Douala. He is being interrogated for information that will help in tracking down other members of the gang.

The owner of the warehouse told police he never sent anybody to it, and did not know the fake policeman. Although Kemoue Justin seems not to collaborate, police say they already have some evidence that can be used against him in a court.