The Zone 2 Police Command in Lagos has arrested a man posing as a police officer for allegedly attempting to secure the release of two detained international fraud suspects on bail.
Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) Adegoke Fayoade, who oversees the zone, confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday.
The detained suspects were reportedly found in possession of forged certificates from a Ghanaian university and were implicated in internet scams across multiple foreign countries.
According to the AIG, the suspects had also offered a N66 million bribe to operatives of the zonal command.
The impostor, described as a middle-aged man, entered the anti-corruption unit of the Zone 2 Command alongside a lawyer, claiming to be a Deputy Superintendent of Police from Edo State.
He allegedly sought bail for the detained suspects, assuring that he would ensure their availability whenever required.
“When asked to present his identity card as a police officer, he provided a police warrant card,” Fayoade said. “On closer scrutiny, it was discovered that in the warrant card, his picture with beards showed that he was hanging the rank of an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), with the name, Sunday Udoka.”
The AIG further revealed, “When detectives turned the back of the warrant card he presented; where the Inspector-General of Police was supposed to sign, an undecipherable signature with abbreviation DCD dated 13th May, 2024, was seen.”
Detectives became suspicious and subjected the man to further questioning. He eventually confessed that he had forged the warrant card himself, appending a signature and attaching his passport photograph.
“He further confessed that he is a police inspector serving at the Anti-Kidnapping Unit in Edo Command and that the suspects were his friends,” Fayoade added.
The impostor revealed that he joined the police force in 2014 as an ICT specialist with a diploma in Computer Science and later underwent a conversion program in Jos.
He admitted to forging the identity card to facilitate the release of his friends.
“It was based on these shocking confessions, he was detained at the station, while detectives are intensifying efforts to ascertain the veracity of all his claims and the level of relationship with the suspects,” the AIG said.
Fayoade confirmed that the suspect would be charged to court after investigations are completed.
