The operatives of the Lagos State Task Force over the weekend nabbed a 35-year-old Togolese man identified as Omoakin Friday Kojo.
He was nabbed around Ikeja railway line for impersonation and extortion with a fake Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) identity card.
Chairman of the Lagos State Task Force, SP Olayinka Egbeyemi, disclosed that the suspect was arrested by the enforcement team of the agency after an official complaint about illegal activities of the suspect was lodged by the Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC).
SP Egbeyemi disclosed further that the suspect popularly called ‘Fryo’ was nabbed around Ikeja railway line for perpetrating all sorts of illicit act ranging from impersonation, defamation of character and extortion in the name of LAGESC.
He noted that the suspect and his cohorts who were at large paraded themselves as officers of LAGESC with fake identity cards in disguised and defrauded their victims by extension defamed the agency.
The chairman hinted that preliminary investigation revealed that Kojo and his cohorts has been long in this illegal business across the state arresting pedestrians who crosses the express roads defying pedestrian bridges provided by the government.
SP Egbeyemi commended Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for the on-going developmental projects across the state particularly the construction of additional modernized pedestrain bridges and lay-bys for commuters along major highways to keep free flow of traffic.
SP Egbeyemi who warned members of the public to be wary of touts going around impersonating as law enforcement officers of the state however confirmed that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi has directed that the suspect be charge to court.
Imohimi further charged the chairman of the Lagos State Task Force, SP Egbeyemi to ensure that other perpetrators at large were arrested and brought to book to serve as deterrent to other touts.
The agency hereby enjoined members of the public to stop crossing highways and make use of pedestrian bridges for safety of their lives.
The suspect confessed to have been illegally arresting pedestrians and extorting money from them with his fake identity card in the last 6 years.
He further added that they were four as a group and that their routine operations cut across Ikeja, Berger, Oshodi, Ojota, Ojodu and Mile 2.
Kojo said he made an average of N8,000 to N10,000 per day from arrested pedestrians who would preferred not to be prosecuted in court.
“I made more money in the morning when people were rushing to work and also in the evening when they are going home as they rushed crossing express roads defying the pedestrian bridges.”
The suspect who claimed to still be using his old Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) identity card to defraud his victims however appealed to government to tamper justice with mercy that he is ready to be of a good character and go back to his country, Togo, if pardoned.
