TaskForce arrests fake security personnel for driving Okada on restricted routes, extorting motorists
A commercial bus driver and an Okada rider, allegedly posing as security personnel, have been arrested by operatives of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit (Taskforce).
The suspects Rasak Oloyede and Monday Job, were arrested along Lagos -Abeokuta Expressway, and Oshodi, respectively.
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According to the Chairman of the Agency, CSP Olayinka Egbeyemi, while Job impersonated a Police Officer using his commercial motorcycle to scout for passengers on restricted routes, Oloyede presented himself as an Army Officer using his commercial bus for fraudulent acts.
Egbeyemi who spoke via a statement signed by the head of Public Affairs, Adebayo Taofiq, stated that the two suspects had confessed to be impersonating security personnel, saying that they indulged in the act in order not to be accosted by genuine security officers on monitoring duties or patrol.
“Our intelligent reports revealed that some dubious-minded motorcyclists are now using fake Nigerian Army and Police uniform to scout for passengers on restricted routes as well as indulging in various forms of fraudulent acts across the State.
“ The directive of the state government stipulates that all security personnel on an official assignment with motorcycles must be fully kitted in uniform with their identity card conspicuously displayed.”
The Chairman further reiterated that motorcycle operators must desist from plying all 475 restricted routes, adding that they must also wear their crash helmets and must possess riders permit for proper identification of the park they belong while plying other routes.
While urging members of the public to be vigilant and desist from patronising commercial motorcyclists and bus drivers who claim to be security personnel, Egbeyemi disclosed that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, CP Hakeem Odumosu had directed that both suspects be charged to court for prosecution.
Making confessional statement, Job who hails from Akwa-Ibom State, said: “I was hawking before I joined Okada business over a year ago. I bought the uniform from a Police Officer who was deployed from Lagos to the northern part of the country for N7000. I have been wearing this Police uniform to arrest and defraud Okada riders and making at least N30,000 to N35, 000 daily. ”
On his part, Oloyede who impersonated a Sergeant in the Nigerian Army, said he has been using the uniform he got from a dismissed Army officer to escape check points mounted by Traffic Officers.
He also claimed to be using the uniform to extort money from motorists and making a daily average collection of N25,000 to N40,000, whenever his Volkswagen commercial bus, with the registration number BDG149 XK, had mechanical faults.
