The Lagos State Task Force Environmental Monitoring and Enforcement Team arrest a fake Policeman who dress in Police uniform to arrest and defraud motorists including Okada riders and makes a daily income of N30,000 to N35,000.
According to a statement by the Commander of the Task Force team, CSP Olayinka Egbeyemi, he said the suspect was apprehended red handed in the act by officers of the Lagos State Task Force Monitoring and Enforcement Team. The fake police man was scouting for passengers on a commercial motorcycle in police uniform on the restricted routes for motorcycles.
Recalled that on Saturday 1st, February 2020, the Lagos state government announced a ban policy on motorcycles (Okada) and tricycles (Keke) on some major highways, bridge and selected local council development area hence riders of the motorcycle and tricycle have introduced new various means to evade the ban policy while some are impersonating police officers just to ply the restricted routes with their commercial motorcycle business at the time Government has warned and even refused to rescue the self-regulated mobility startups like Max.ng, Gokada, ORide and others.
The operatives of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit (Taskforce) arrested one Monday Job, who hails from Akwa-Ibom State for impersonating a Police Officer and using his motorcycle for commercial purposes on a restricted route in Oshodi, Lagos.
Speaking on the incident, the Chairman of the Agency, CSP Olayinka Egbeyemi said the suspect was apprehended by the Monitoring and Enforcement Team of the Agency while scouting for passengers on a commercial motorcycle in police uniform.
In his confessional statement, the suspect, Monday Job, who hails from Akwa-Ibom State, confessed that he bought the uniform from a Police Officer who was deployed from Lagos to the northern part of the country for N7000, adding that he had been using the same uniform to carry out illegal arrests while also extorting money from motorists and motorcyclists plying restricted routes along Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway. “I was hawking before I joined Okada business over a year ago and I have been wearing this Police uniform to arrest and defraud motorists including Okada riders and making at least N30,000 to N35,000 daily”, he added
Egbeyemi stated that preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect was not a genuine police officer, adding that “the man impersonated a police officer for the primary purpose of using his commercial motorcycle to carry passengers on restricted routes in order not to be accosted by security patrol on monitoring exercise”.
He said, “We have on several occasions received complaints, particularly from motorcycle riders, about activities of this unscrupulous fraudster who had been using police uniforms to indulge in his fraudulent activities as well as extorting money from commercial vehicle operators and other road users”.
The Task Force Chairman reiterated that all Police Officers attached to the Agency for the enforcement of Traffic and Environmental Laws wear jackets with the inscription – ‘LAGOS TASKFORCE’ – for proper identification while on duty. While urging security personnel enforcing restriction of commercial motorcycles on designated routes to be more vigilant, the Chairman disclosed that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, CP Hakeem Odumosu has directed that the arrested suspect be immediately arraigned in court.
