THE police in Ogun State have arrested a suspected fake army lieutenant colonel, who attempted   to dupe an estate agent in Sango Ota area of the state. The suspect, who claimed to be Babatunde Abdulsaheed,  had also reportedly in the  past, claimed to be an army general.

The suspect, a resident of Ikotun area of Lagos State was arrested, after collecting the sum of N30,000 from an unnamed woman   to use his influence as a top army chief to influence a reduction of the price of a parcel of land .

The fake army lieutenant colonel , who   had been arraigned before a law court by the state police command, initially  claimed to have once served in the Nigerian Army but denied ever being a soldier, when he was about to be handed over to  men of the Nigerian Army.

 Crime & Security  gathered that the suspect might have lied to the police about his name and address following unconfirmed facts that his real name was Kehinde and that  he had used the impersonation activities  to make a lot of money for himself .

A source at Sango Divisional police station, where the suspect was arrested stated that the suspect had lied to  the area commander in charge of the station , Titilayo Kayode, that  he was only helping the woman on humanitarian ground but the woman refuted this by insisting that she gave the fake lieutenant colonel, N30,000 before he agreed to follow her to the office of the estate agent.

A source at Owoeye and Company, where the fake army officer was arrested informed Crime & Security  that the suspect had initially maintained his ground that he was an officer until a  former soldier countered all his claims.

The alleged fake lieutenant colonel’s journey to prison reportedly started over the last weekend, when he visited the palace of the Oba of Isheri Olofin in Alimosho area of Lagos State,  to plead on behalf of an unnamed land owner in the area after the monarch had won a court judgment. Questions were reportedly put forward to him on the authenticity of him being an army officer, but he reportedly maneuvered his way.   

Abdul Saheed  again  on the following Monday visited  the office of Owoeye and Company, the estate agency contacted by the Oba, to help sell the land. It was at the office that the veil on his impersonation activities was finally blown open.

“Since Saturday at the palace of Oba of Isheri he introduced himself to us as a Lieutenant Colonel but with the way he was dressed and the way he spoke we were a bit suspicious. We tried to ask him some questions but he managed to escape on that day. There were many people at the palace. They would have lynched him there if they had found out that he was a fake soldier,” a worker at Owoeye and Company, who pleaded anonymity stated .

The worker further added that on Monday, “he came again with the woman and one other person. This time Baba was not around and when they called him that an army officer wanted to see him he told us  to open his office for him and he instructed us to entertain him.”

Another worker  simply identified as Soja, while speaking with Crime & Security stated that “the way he spoke showed that he was not an army officer. Initially he told us that he was a former soldier and when we said that we wanted to hand him over to the military, he denied  ever being a soldier.

Soja also added that “when I asked him, where he had served, initially he said that he was the commanding officer of 149 battalion in Lagos and when I told him that I knew the CO there, he changed his words that he was  a commander of the Joint Task Force.

“That was what he said on Saturday  but when he came on Monday, we asked him again and he claimed to be the Commanding Officer of 4 Brigade Battalion. When I asked him where is 4 Brigade he said Warri , while in actual fact it is in Benin. With that he still insisted that he was an army officer until  when he was sure that the game was over and he started pleading for mercy.”

The woman, on whose behalf the suspect had gone to Sango Ota, narrated that “It was when the issue of new owners of the land came up that somebody introduced him to me as a Major. I was surprised when he introduced himself as a lieutenant colonel at the palace of the Oba on Saturday.”

She also added that “initially, when I complained to him that some people were disturbing my construction work , he told me to bring N30,000 and that he would bring some of his men to the site.

He actually brought two people there but they ran away when the boys came.

Crime & Security  gathered that the suspect, had in his statement  at the police station, claimed to be a former lieutenant in the Nigerian Army and that he was dismissed in 1996. He also said that he bought the uniform and other insignia at a mammy market in Lagos State.

When contacted, the area commander in charge of the Sango Divisional area command, Mr Titilayo Kayode, confirmed the arrest of a “fake soldier” but declined further comment and directed our reporter to  the police public relations officer in Eleweran Abeokuta.”

Meanwhile, MEN of the Nigerian Army attached to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Capital Building, Ring-Road, Ibadan, Oyo State, at the weekend, gave a house owner around the area, Mr Akintokunbo Adejumo, the beating of his life for allegedly making a comment considered injurious to their personalities.

Trouble brewed as a result of a fire outbreak that razed part of the Capital Building and the house of former Super Eagles' player, Gbenga Okunowo, in which properties worth several millions of naira were lost. But, Adejumo, in his own submission described the fire incident as a sabotage and also accused the soldiers on duty for their care-free attitude while the fire lasted.

According to Adejumo, one of the soldiers walked up to him and slapped him. And before he could cry for help, two other soldiers joined in the beating.

While sharing his experience with Crime & Security at the scene, Adejumo said, "the fire broke out at about 2:30 am, and obviously being next neighbour to the scene, we rushed out to see what we could do to put out the fire and in actual fact, I was one of those who went to call the fire fighters at Challenge area. "On our arrival, of course everybody hanged around discussing on the incident.

"So, I just remarked that how could there be soldiers guarding the premises and the fire escalated to this level. Maybe one of them overheard me, the next thing I observed was that one of them walked up to me and started slapping me, beat me up and also threw me on the ground before others joined.

"If not because of the landlords in the community who could identify me and came to my rescue, I don't know what would have happened by now.”

He also added that, "as I am speaking with you now, I have received four different injections due to the beating I got from the soldiers." When asked what could  have caused the fire, Adejumo said, "We cannot ascertain the cause. We just heard a loud bang and on getting out of the house we saw that it was a fire outbreak which obviously started from the wooden structures in the Capital Building."

Comments (0)

Show/hide comments

Show/hide comment form

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Add Comment