Man impersonates SARS Commander to extort Lagos residents

A 38-year-old man, Abiodun  Ajayi, has been arrested for allegedly masquerading as the Officer in-charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, of the Lagos State Police Command, CSP Peter Gana, to extort Lagos residents.
His modus oparandi as gathered, included writing fictitious petitions against his victim. Thereafter, he would visit the victim’s house pretending to have come to effect his arrest.

But he met his dead end after one of his victims, identified simply as Ariola, who alleged that the suspect had so far extorted N2 million from him, petitioned  the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Police Command, CP Zubairu Muazu.

The CP was said to have directed the Commander, OC SARS, Peter Gana, to fish out the suspect, consequent upon which he was arrested.

Findings

Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect sometimes posed as a detective and that his targets, most of who had questionable characters would rather prefer to grease his palm with cash than reporting the case of extortion at the station.

Findings according to police sources, further revealed that the suspect also identified himself as Sergeant Musa , a deceased policeman.

Police sources hinted that after his arrest, several of his victims showed up to relate their ordeals in his hands.

I am a police informant – suspect

In an interview with the Oyo-State born suspect, he said, “I have worked with private security firms as  Procurement officer or in the IT department. I started with Proton, then Astac securities.

In 2018, I started working for Halogen Securities where I served at the control room but due to the economic situation in the country, I was retrenched. While in service,  I made friends with a lot of police men in Lagos State.

“By the time I lost my job, I reached out to some policemen at Ikorodu and volunteered to be their informant. Together, we made a lot of arrests. I was so popular amongst them that when there was no  operational vehicle,  they would use my SUV. It was in the process that I became close to one Sergeant  Musa, whom I assisted whenever  he was looking for suspects living in my area.

While I was hanging out with Musa, he showed me the picture of the man that reported me to the Police. The man  lives in my area and we have done business together. I told him that Sergeant Musa was looking for him over a fraud case and he pleaded with me to beg Musa for a soft landing. I told the policeman and we agreed that he should raise some money for Sergeant Musa. In fact the amount he raised was not up to N200,000.

“It was when police arrested me that I heard that Musa was  dead. I was close to Musa until he was transferred out of Lagos. I did not know or hear that he was killed. But I did not collect N2 million from the complainant. The only thing I can say is that as soon as I saved him from Sergeant Musa, he suddenly became generous. Once in a while, he would  give me money but if I add all together, it’s not up to N2million”.

Investigation according to spokesman for the Lagos State Police Command, DSP Elkana, Bala, was still ongoing.