A 26-year-old motorcycle rider, Yakubu Usman, who was arrested for impersonating as a police officer, has said that his love for the security agency’s job, unsuccessful attempts to join the police force and move to save his motorcycle from being seized made him declare himself as an Assistant Superintendent of Police.
Yakubu, who hails from Gworza Local Government Area of Borno State but lives in Lagos, was arrested by the surveillance team of CSP Tokunbo Abaniwonda-led Alausa Division in Lagos State Police Command at about 2 a.m. on October 21, Sunday Tribune learnt.
It was further gathered that the police operatives who were on night patrol duty saw him with an unregistered Bajaj motorcycle in front of Fela’s shrine where he brought a passenger to.
When accosted by the police, he claimed to be an Assistant Superintendent of Police, serving in Lagos command under Entry and Exit Squad (in E&ES) of the police commissioner, flashing an identity card.
However, when the operatives checked his Force number written on the identity card, they discovered that it was fake. He was discovered to have forged the signature of the Assistant Inspector General of Police on a police warrant card. Also found in his possession was a jacket on which has the inscription E&ES.
During interrogation, the suspect confessed to impersonating as a police officer.
He told the operatives that he used to work as a help for police officers, running errands, washing cars and other menial jobs. He added that he was also an okada rider.
The command’s Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, who confirmed the suspect’s arrest when contacted, said that he would be charged to court after the conclusion of the investigation.
The suspect, in an interview, told Sunday Tribune the reason behind the impersonation: “I fell in love with the police job. I tried to join the Nigeria Police Force twice back home in Borno, but I was unsuccessful.
“The first time, I was dropped after going through medical checkup and I was diagnosed with chronic typhoid. The second time, I was simply told that I was not qualified. That was in the police college, Maiduguri.”
How I was arrested
“I brought a passenger to Fela’s Shrine in Ikeja, using a motorcycle I borrowed from a friend to work. I was stopped by the police, and they wanted to impound the bike I was riding. That was when I claimed to be a police officer. They demanded my identity card and I showed them the one I made for myself. They collected and checked it, and told me that I was lying. That was how I was arrested.
“The impersonation was a mistake on my part. I did it to save the bike from being impounded. I used the identity card for the first time when I was arrested,” he said.
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