16-year-old boy arrested for duping policemen

A 16-year-old boy, Mohammed Isah,  claims he  duped  policemen of thousands of Naira by raising false alarm. It was gathered that  Isah, of no fixed address, on Tuesday, went to the Office of the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State and alleged that police metro patrol teams  4 and 5 took N180,000  from him after he was arrested.

Consequently,  the teams were  invited and interrogated and it was discovered that they had no contact with him.Further investigation revealed that the suspect  had made similar allegation against some policemen in Anambra and Ondo states.

Lagos State Commissioner of Police,  Fatai Owoseni, said Isah came to the state police command to allege that some policemen in  patrol vehicles  arrested him and, in order to free himself,  he gave them N150,000.
However, he ran out of luck. While he was making the report,  a Deputy Commissioner of Police, who had served in Anambra  and  was with the Commissioner of Police, suspected his report.  He recalled how a man made such claim in Anambra and succeeded in collecting N120,000 and also went to Ondo State and used the same method to collect N40,000 from the police while five of the policemen he accused were dismissed.   Based on this, the police boss ordered that his allegation be thoroughly investigated and, at the end, it was found to be false.
Stating his own side of the story, Isah said,

‘’ I am from Kebbi State.   I was arrested when I came to the police command to report that some policemen on patrol  arrested me and collected money from me which was false.   It was not my first time of doing it.   I had used the same trick to defraud the police in  Anambra and Ondo States.   So,  I  came to do same in  Lagos  but I was not lucky.   Before going to the police command,  I will  copy the number of a patrol vehicle and go to the command to report that the men on duty with that patrol number had arrested me and collected money from me.The commissioner of police in-charge of the state will give me back the amount I claimed they extorted from me since they have zero tolerance for  corruption.   So,  I saw it as an opportunity to make money but I ran out of luck when a Deputy Commissioner of Police, who was with the Commissioner of Police in Lagos when I was lodging the report, recounted a similar case that happened in his state and my allegation was investigated.  That led to my arrest. I did it because I have no job and nobody to help me but I know it is not good.’’


Vanguard