Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) have arrested five suspects alleged to have posed as local government traffic officers to extort money from motorists along the LASU-Igando expressway, Ojo.
The suspects, who allegedly claimed they were on contract with the Ikotun-Igando Local Council Development Area (LCDA), were arrested yesterday afternoon after the police received a complaint from one Professor Abdulraham Olayiwola.
The suspects are the gang leader, Taiwo Falodun (48), Mukaila Atanda (48), Adedire Olaniyi (40), Chibuzor Eze (26) and Akinseye Alex (48).
The suspects were said to have last Thursday extorted N41,000 from Professor Olayiwola after accusing him of not speeding on the expressway.
The professor was heading towards Igando from LASU when the suspects, operating on a commercial tricycle, allegedly forced him to park “for not speeding.”
The suspects were alleged to have forced him to drive to their hideout on the LASU-Igando expressway where they impounded his vehicle and made him to pay N41,000.
They released the vehicle to him the following day.
Investigation by the RRS operatives revealed that the suspects had previously impounded over 15 private vehicles and two commercial buses, which they allegedly kept in their hideout.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Bala Elkana, who confirmed the arrest, said that the suspects also deflated the tyres of the vehicles.
Elkana said that one of the suspects’ victims stated that the fake local government traffic officers demanded N30,000 from him for his vehicle not to be towed to Badagry, where he would be made to pay N75,000 before it would be released to him.
Elkana said that the investigation also revealed that many private car owners who had fallen victims said they paid cash through a POS owned by one of the suspects.
Falodun, a dismissed Spy policeman, said that he and his fellow suspects were engaged to work for the Ikotun-igando LCDA Council on contract and that the team was remitting N20,000 weekly to the Council.
Allegedly recovered from the suspects were payment tickets of sums ranging from N25,000 to N41,000 that they issued to their victims, and one tricycle.
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